Blue Marble proprietresses
Alexis Miesen and Jennie Dundas,
my partners in experimentation
Photo: Sprig.com

by Julia Bainbridge

I underwent an experiment last week. Or, rather, two pints of Blue Marble strawberry ice cream underwent an experiment last week. They traveled from New York City to Houston, Texas on Continental Airlines flight 133. And why this merits an "amazing": They arrived--very stylishly, I might add, in their stainless steel Timolino insulated jar--still frozen in Houston's 90-degree airport and then traveled another 20 minutes (after already keeping their cool for five hours--my flight was delayed, of course) to the nearest freezer virtually undisturbed. A tiny bit of pinky soup skimmed the thermos' surface, but all in all, that was some solid strawberry goodness. (And a relief, too, since it was my gift for the hostess of a dinner party I would attend the next night.)

"Why go to all the trouble?" you might ask. I admit: packing and unpacking the stuff made for a sticky mess (combined with sticky Houston weather, it wasn't pretty), and I could have otherwise made it out of the airport sans checked baggage. Chocolate or really good coffee beans would have been easier choices. But I'll also say this: Blue Marble ice cream is that good. Yes, Texans are quite proud of Blue Bell (as well as a host of other sugared, fried or smoked goods, which I'll tell you about later in the week)--and it's pretty good stuff--but Blue Marble is better. Creamy, flavorful, "pure" tasting, if that makes sense--just better. One could even call it amazing. So much so, in fact, that it might have to take a flight to my next destination dinner party.