If We’re Doing Corporate Names for Berkey Creamery Ice Cream Flavors Now, Here’s Some Other Suggestions

On a recent trip to the Berkey Creamery, I noticed what I thought was a new flavor on the board called Three Stripe Delight.

I have a usual go-to list of creamery flavors among them; Coconut Chip, Alumni Swirl, Russ Digs Roseberry, Peachy Paterno and Black Raspberry Frozen Yogurt (don’t let the “yogurt” thing deter you—that stuff tastes richer than ice cream). Also note that August Pie is in stock now and is another outstanding flavor.

So, I was curious to see what this new Three Stripe Delight flavor was all about. Was it a three-striped ice cream like a Neapolitan (vanilla, chocolate and strawberry) or spumoni, the Italian combination of cherry, chocolate and pistachio? But alas the three-stripe delight was neither the “striped” ice cream Neapolitan nor spumoni.

Turns out the “new” flavor was simply a re-branding of Death by Chocolate as a promotion for Adidas, a new corporate sponsor for Penn State Athletics. 

Naming a flavor for a “corporate partner” is a new thing.

The naming of flavors began in the 1980s when the Creamery honored Penn State professor John Almquist after he won The Wolf Prize, an international award that is considered the Nobel Prize for agricultural sciences. 

The flavor was named Cherry ‘Quis” and it preceded the Ben & Jerry’s flavor Cherry Garcia honoring the long-time front man for the Grateful Dead. For those who don’t know, both Ben and Jerry in 1978 took Penn State’s Ice Cream Short Course which is one of the most important educational resources in the industry (if there is schoolwork in heaven, chances are it is the PSU ice cream course).

The Berkey Creamery itself was named for Earle and Jeanne Berkey, who donated $3 million to the Food Sciences Building. Jeanne was a 1948 Penn State grad in dairy science and Earle attended the Ice Cream Short Course.

As for naming flavors, the tradition has been to name them after people or places or events that are special to Penn State. Cherry ‘Quist was followed by named favors for Joe Paterno (Peachy Paterno), Dr. Philip Keeney (Keeney Beany) and Russ Rose (Russ Digs Roseberry), among others.

Other flavors have been named for organizations, places or events like THON (THON Gold Ribbon), the White Out, the Alumni Association (Alumni Swirl), Mount Nittany (Mint Nittany), The Arboretum (Arboretum Breeze), Shaver’s Creek Bittersweet Mint, WPSU Coffee Break and the Schreyer Honors College (Scholar’s Chip). There is even a flavor called Crazy Charlie Sundae Swirl. No word on if an actual Crazy Charlie existed.

But now with this latest flavor naming for a new corporate partner, has the Berkey Creamery opened the door to corporate naming rights? Certainly, one could ask who made the call to promote a corporate partner. That’s for others to discuss.

But since the door has been opened, there may be a chance to sell corporate naming rights to a whole range of flavors. (Note: this list is satire so do not flood Old Main or the Creamery with e-mails with either objections or suggestions).

First, we’ll start with current corporate partners.

Pepsi Passion: Cherry ice cream with swirls of cola syrup.

West Shore Home Sundae Swirl: Chocolate, marshmallow, with peanut and maraschino cherry chunks.

Starbucks WPSU/WHYY Coffee Break: This reflects the on-campus coffee purveyor and the new WHYY acquisition of WPSU.

New Possibilities

Mallo Cup Chocolate Marshmallow: Pieces of this Altoona original would be easy to mix into this classic flavor.

Clark Bar Crunch: Chocolate ice cream with chunks of crunchy peanut butter.

Sheetz Glizzy Surprise: Who wouldn’t want some vanilla ice cream with chunks of Sheetz hot dogs, Heinz yellow mustard and sweet relish?

Wawa Hoagie Fest: Mayo flavored ice cream now mixed with an assortment of deli meats and cheeses with some hot pepper relish.

Primanti Brothers Blowout: Cabbage, chunks of French Fries and chunks of kielbasa in mayo-flavored ice cream.

Bacardi Bananas Foster: The flavors of brown sugar, bananas and rum. The once-verboten alcohol corporate sponsor seal was broken with Bud Light, Modelo and Surfside, so the rum naming rights lane is wide open.

The creamery could sell the naming rights to several current flavors.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough becomes Pillsbury Straight from the Tube, because many of us recall late night binges of Pillsbury cookie dough straight from the tube sharing one spoon.

Happy Happy Joy Joy becomes Almond Joy. Given the almond, coconut and chocolate combination this is already an Almond Joy-themed ice cream. Sometimes you feel like a nut.

Cookies & Cream is now Ultimate Oreo.

Monkey Business, which has banana ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate chips, is now Chiquita Banana Bonanza. 

Grilled Stickies will not change names. You don’t mess with perfection.

Butter Pecan becomes Progressive Insurance Butter Pecan. Progressive’s fictional “Dr. Rick” knows ordering Butter Pecan confirms that you too have become your parents. 

Monster Mash is a pop-up Halloween-themed flavor. It would be completely fitting to sell the rights to another famous pop up Halloween Spirit Store Monster Mash.

Utz Chocolate Pretzel Crunch: This could go to Utz or Snyder’s of Hanover, two massive snack food companies in a state that is the national leader in producing quality snack foods.

And to honor some historical Penn State corporate partners we can add these.

Coke Break: Until the age of Gatorade and the Pepsi contract, Penn State was a Coke school and football practices included a Coke break. A vanilla-and-coke-flavored cone would be quite a break.

Daily’s Orange Mimosa: Daily’s Cocktails started in 1960, delivering fresh orange juice to homes in Western PA before making other juices and mixers for cocktails. They were a corporate partner and sponsored the Penn State football highlight show for years, so it would be fitting to honor them with an orange and champagne ice cream.

Nike Peanut Butter Swoosh: Nike’s co-founder Phil Knight has been known to eat a fair share of Gardner’s Peanut Butter Melt-aways. 

Corporate names on ice cream or not, nothing tops an evening seated outside the Berkey Creamery ice cream with a cone in hand.