Winter may be approaching everywhere else in the country, but living in sunny-and-75 San Diego means, among lots of other things, I get to eat ice cream all year long. One of San Diego's unique ice cream shops is Hammond's Gourmet Ice Cream, which is known for their mini ice cream flights.
These flights are perfect for someone like myself, one of the most indecisive people to roam the earth. Hammond's offers 2-6 cone ice cream flights of as well as a whopping 32-cone flight.
I would go so far as to consider myself an avid ice cream eater, so I naturally felt obliged to step up to this challenge. With the help of three other stomachs in addition to my own, I set out to eat all 32 flavors on the rotating menu at Hammond's, which includes five dairy-free options. Here's how it went down.
Phase One
It took about 15 minutes for all 32 of these little balls of joy to be scooped into the cones. When this masterpiece arrived, I prepared my body for the sugar overload that was to come and dug in.
Phase Two
Slow and steady was my initial strategy, but the ice cream was melting—fast—so that wouldn't cut it. If we wanted to end up with more ice cream actually in our mouths than on the table we obviously had to pick up the pace. Spoons were definitely the MVP of this game. Other than that, we were off to a good start.
I didn’t meet a single flavor I didn’t like as I worked my way through the collection. However, there were some that clearly came out on top. My personal favorites were the lychee cream (which was also offered in an equally as delicious sorbet version), brown sugar, pineapple coconut cream, Thai tea, and vanilla rose.
Phase Three
I've never run a marathon before (I don't think I've ever run more than three miles at a time), but by the time all of the ice cream had been eaten I felt like I had just finished one—fatigued but satisfied by the accomplishment. I then promptly went home to spend the rest of the afternoon recovering from what I had just done.
Final Thoughts
Hammond's hit the nail on the head as far as ice cream goes. The ice cream is imported from Hawaii and the flavors are anything but boring (I can now say I have had black sesame ice cream, which is pretty exciting).
To all of those brave, ice-cream-loving souls out there: try the 32-cone flight if you dare. Just be sure to bring backup because it is definitely not a one-man job. Keep in mind this challenge is not for the weak of heart, so if eating an entire meal of ice cream isn't your thing, try a smaller flight of some adventurous flavors.