Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America

by Amy Ettinger Narrated by Kathleen McInerney

Overview

A journalist channels her ice-cream obsession, scouring the United States for the best artisanal brands and delving into the surprising history of ice cream and frozen treats in America.
 
For Amy Ettinger, ice cream is not just a delicious snack but a circumstance and a time of year—frozen forever in memory. As the youngest child and only girl, ice cream embodied unstructured summers, freedom from the tyranny of her classmates, and a comforting escape from her chaotic, demanding family.
 
Now as an adult and journalist, her love of ice cream has led to a fascinating journey to understand ice cream's evolution and enduring power, complete with insight into the surprising history behind America's early obsession with ice cream and her experience in an immersive ice-cream boot camp to learn from the masters. From a visit to the one place in the United States that makes real frozen custard in a mammoth machine known as the Iron Lung, to the vicious competition among small ice-cream makers and the turf wars among ice-cream trucks, to extreme flavors like foie gras and oyster, Ettinger encounters larger-than-life characters and uncovers what's really behind America's favorite frozen treats.
 
Sweet Spot is a fun and spirited exploration of a treat Americans can't get enough of—one that transports us back to our childhoods and will have you walking to the nearest shop for a cone.

Editorial Reviews

JULY 2017 - AudioFile

Kathleen McInerney narrates Ettinger's chronicle of her cross-country quest to explore as many different varieties of ice cream as possible, including gelato, custard, and frozen yogurt. McInerney is a great choice to recount the author's lifelong love affair with the delectable frozen treat. She clearly and expressively covers the varied topics such as the author’s childhood memories of ice cream, the history of the treat, the process of making it, developments in new flavors, and the fierce competition in the business of production and distribution. McInerney's feminine, expressive voice conveys Ettinger's enthusiasm for her subject while also providing convincing renderings of the quirky characters she meets on her journey. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

Praise for Sweet Spot

“A surprisingly serious, impressively thorough treatment of ice cream’s cultural significance, fabrication, economics and history, not to mention its effect on human brain chemistry.” —Wall Street Journal

“[Ettinger’s] richly entertaining, easy-to-read narrative is infused with history, recipes and the science behind what makes for delicious—and sometimes not-so-delicious—flavors....Ettinger piles on double and triple scoops of fun information that offers literary deliciousness for ice cream lovers everywhere.”—Shelf Awareness

“A breezy, appealing book...you don’t have to be a foodie to savor [Ettinger’s] tribute to a summer staple...Her travelogue is a scoop of fun for everyone.”—BookPage

“In this breezy part memoir, part frozen-treat homage, journalist Ettinger takes readers on a tour of some of her favorite ice cream memories...A light, fun read for those who want some ice cream history along with their sundae.”—Library Journal

“Ettinger's book will be a vicarious treat for fellow addicts.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Sweet Spot is an American epic told by an adventurous soul with an ice cream obsession. Wonderfully entertaining, witty and smart, superbly researched, and filled with a colorful cast of ice cream aficionados and fanatics, this book feels destined to become a classic for foodies and history buffs alike.”—Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

“Amy Ettinger has written such a charming and passionate love story that you'll feel like maybe ice cream is what you need more of in your life. Because it's also a world view in a cone, this book, and it's just what we need right now: equal parts comfort and thrills, luscious escapism and delightfully obsessive reality, and pure, cover-to-cover yumminess.”—Catherine Newman, author of Waiting for Birdy and Catastrophic Happiness

“An energetic romp through the history of ice cream in America. Science, politics, race, gender, class –Ettinger considers it all as she interviews ice cream icons, idealists, and innovators. With strong reporting full of heart, Ettinger takes us beyond sugar and cream to bring us the full story of America’s favorite dessert.”—Jessica Fechtor, New York Times bestselling author of Stir

“Whether chasing down butter pecan frozen custard in Cream City, USA, Mister Softee slugfests in Brooklyn, or candy cap mushroom gelato made from water buffalo milk in northern California, Amy Ettinger gets the scoop on ice cream's rich and wonderful past, present, and future.”—Rien Fertel, author of The One True Barbecue

Library Journal

05/15/2017
In this breezy part memoir, part frozen-treat homage, journalist Ettinger takes readers on a tour of some of her favorite ice cream memories. Starting with a childhood steeped in family-sized pails through a gradual upscaling of her taste buds from Ben and Jerry's all the way up to artisanal hand-crafted gelato, she researches various styles and techniques, all the while stocking her freezer with pints. Interviewing numerous ice cream makers, including Jerry himself, she tries out numerous varieties, including some made with bugs. This journey takes Ettinger from Frusen Gladje to Carvel's, Kopps and Culver's, through the frozen yogurt craze (remember TCBY), with stops at freezer cases, scoop shops, and ice cream trucks along the way. Bits of corporate history are interwoven with stories of her family and her own obsession with chilly sweet goodness. She even includes a few recipes for readers to try out themselves. VERDICT A light, fun read for those who want some ice cream history along with their sundae. Recommended for public libraries.—Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

JULY 2017 - AudioFile

Kathleen McInerney narrates Ettinger's chronicle of her cross-country quest to explore as many different varieties of ice cream as possible, including gelato, custard, and frozen yogurt. McInerney is a great choice to recount the author's lifelong love affair with the delectable frozen treat. She clearly and expressively covers the varied topics such as the author’s childhood memories of ice cream, the history of the treat, the process of making it, developments in new flavors, and the fierce competition in the business of production and distribution. McInerney's feminine, expressive voice conveys Ettinger's enthusiasm for her subject while also providing convincing renderings of the quirky characters she meets on her journey. S.E.G. © AudioFile 2017, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

2017-04-17
Essayist Ettinger's affection for ice cream takes her across the country in a search for variations on her favorite food.The author, who attributes her interest to the "immense tubs of generic-brand ice cream" her father dragged home in compensation for other lacks in the family, now describes herself as an "ice cream snob." She has taught herself to make ice cream and includes relatively esoteric recipes at the end of many of the chapters, though readers interested in duplicating her efforts might be wise to first read her chapter about the difficulty of manufacturing her chosen delight. Ettinger enrolled in the short version of "the world's most famous ice cream making class" at Penn State University, where she faced the dilemma of whether to spit out samples or not and learned more than she wanted to know about listeria. More than anything, the Santa Cruz-based author traveled, sampling frozen custard in Milwaukee and getting carjacked in the process; riding along in a Brooklyn ice cream truck and learning about the vicious territory disputes for such trucks in New York; and even, to her own disgust, investigating her nemesis, frozen yogurt, which tries "so unsuccessfully to imitate the whipped fatty creaminess of my childhood obsession." Along the way, she makes the questionable case that "ice cream is more like a drug than any other food," and she works up a certain amount of indignation about how many ice cream makers, even allegedly artisan operations, use commercial ice cream base rather than manufacturing their own. But for the most part, she keeps her tone light, concentrating on the pleasures of Brown Butter Spiced Pumpkin Seed gelato, "like a studly hazelnut gigolo." Best consumed in small portions, Ettinger's book will be a vicarious treat for fellow addicts.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940172109874
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	06/27/2017
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

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Excerpted from "Sweet Spot"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Amy Ettinger.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Publishing Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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