Thinking Outside the Scoop

If this ball were an ice cream flavor, what flavor would it be?

Hiya, Friends!  Zoe here.  Say, the other day on The Daily Zoe, I mentioned that I'd like some ice cream, but not vanilla ice cream.  I wanted something else, but I didn't know what.  I still haven't found what I'm looking for, but here's the idea I'm having, and maybe you can help me out and figure out a flavor.

What we need to do, Big People, is think outside the scoop, so to speak.  See me in the picture over there?  I'm holding a ball.  That's what I'd like to inspire my flavor of ice cream.  But not literally.  I'm not looking for "Plastic Paradise" ice cream, or "Yellow Lemon" or anything like that.

Now, here's where I am, and stay close, because you're gonna have to follow me on this one.  Okay.  See, I'm holding a ball in my hands in the picture. If it were a regular ball, like what you picture in your head when I say "Ball!" maybe a baseball or a basketball, or a super-high-bounce ball, that would be vanilla.

Let's simplify this:  Just a regular, generic ball would be vanilla ice cream.  Do you get where I'm going here?  Keep following.  I'll give ya more examples.  Mmmmmmkay.  Generic ball, plain vanilla ice cream.  A basketball would be fudge swirl, because I bet a lot of people think of a basketball when they think of a ball, and fudge swirl is just basically vanilla ice cream with swirls in it, and fudge is the kind of swirl lots of people like best.  It's hard to offend someone with fudge swirl, but it's also hard to surprise them with fudge swirl.  A baseball is probably almost as popular as a basketball, when you think of the word 'ball,' so I'd say a baseball would be butterscotch swirl, because it's still basically vanilla ice cream, with a swirl of butterscotch running through it, and even though butterscotch is one of those flavors people can take or leave sometimes, it's still pretty popular.  Now, football, that's getting interesting.  I'd say cookies n' cream would be football, because football's still pretty familiar and expected, so there's the vanilla base, but now you have cookies crunched up in there, to make things a little surprising, like the pointy ends on a football.  Rocky Road would be a super-high-bounce ball, because even though it looks like a plain basic ball, the super-high-bounce ball can bounce super-high and do just about anything, and with Rocky Road, you always wonder if you're going to get a mouthful of marshmallow or almonds.  And a bowling ball is kind of a zany choice to think of when you think of a ball.  It's a niche thing.  A bowling ball would translate into ice cream as Ben and Jerry's Black and Tan, which has ale in it, if you believe it!  And it's not bad, I hear, but not for everybody, kind of like a bowling ball.

Now do you see where I'm going with this?  Take another look at my ball.  It's a all, basically. It's familiar.  But it's surprising, too, because it has all these holes.  I mean, it's more hole than ball!  And there's all these bright colors on it.  But if the lights were off, you wouldn't know about the colors.  You'd just know it's a holey ball!  And it can roll or bounce or squoosh and spring back into shape.  I want to figure out a flavor of ice cream that's like my ball here.  Familiar, but with unexpected details about it that it might take a few bites to figure out.  Subtlety is what I'm aiming for, but also deliciousness, so no Swiss Cheese Flavor ice cream, or Squid Ice Cream.  I don't even know why you'd think of squid-flavored ice cream, unless you're that kid who just likes to make everybody say 'eeeeeeeeeeew!'  I'm being serious here, so I got that out of your system for you! 

So let's think, think, think, friends!  Think outside the scoop!