Homestead Creamery has rolled out two new flavors designed with Virginia Tech fans in mind: HokieBerry Trail and Hokie Sunset Swirl.
HokieBerry Trail consists of a base of premium vanilla swirled with tart Chicago maroon raspberry pomegranate and sprinkled with decadent dark chocolate crumbles. The label for Hokie Sunset Swirl features a golden-orange sun setting over silhouetted mountains, reminiscent of the Appalachian sunset.
Hokie Sunset Swirl has a smooth vanilla ice cream base with vanilla cake crunch bites. A ripple of sun-kissed mango tangerine gives it a refreshing fruity bite and its signature burnt orange color. HokieBerry Trail’s label features topography lines surrounding a dotted path, a reference to Blacksburg’s Huckleberry Trail that gave the ice cream its name.
The new pint container label designs for both flavors feature university trademarks, including the word “Hokie” and the Hokie ice cream marks, which represent the footprints of the Hokie Bird. The new designs were created by Shanin Glenn for Virginia Tech Communications and Marketing in collaboration with Homestead Creamery.
As with Hokie Tracks, the first licensed ice cream to come out of Virginia Tech and Homestead’s creamy collaboration, these new flavors were developed by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences’ Department of Food Science and Technology faculty members and alumni Joell Eifert and Brian Wiersema working in partnership with Homestead’s team.
“The success of Hokie Tracks exceeded our expectations, and now we’re really excited to share these two new flavors with the public,” Eifert said. “We worked really hard to make sure they embody Virginia Tech in every way.”
A portion of the proceeds from sales of all three flavors go to support food science education through the funding of scholarships, student product development teams, lab supplies and more in the Department of Food Science and Technology.
The department will award its first student scholarships funded entirely by Hokie Tracks sales next summer.
The new flavors will roll out to grocery stores, restaurants, ice cream shops, and specialty stores across Virginia.
A launch event is planned for Sept. 15 in McLean. Registration is required.