Baskin-Robbins Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice cream. To many of you this may not seem like such a big deal, but to me, it’s a little scoop of gustatory heaven. Now ice cream is good, I eat it somewhat regularly, once a week in fact. But I’m not one of those people who is ga-ga for all things milky and frozen. I would much prefer a delicious slice of pie (anything but apple, too blah); even a delectable cookie is more than alright with me. But Baskin-Robbins Peanut Butter and Chocolate ice cream is pure brilliance.
I love chocolate, and I do adore peanut butter. I have been known to partake of the much loved Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup. But my adoration of this one particular frozen treat melts down to a more succinct terminology– it’s all about the ratio. The ratio, it’s just a measly scoop of ice cream, what is this girl talking about? Well my dear readers, the reason I love this dessert treat can be traced all the way back to the sixth century B.C. with the great thinker Pythagoras. You might remember from Geometry class that Pythagoras discovered the ratio of the hypotenuse to the two sides of a right triangle. But in the case of this ice cream treat, the ratio of salty to sweet, or the ratio of peanut butter to chocolate.
As you continue to read this site you’ll see just how important this theory of ratios is to me. I LOVE THE RATIO. Entire meals can be made or broken with this one simple theory, be it found in the composition, the look, or the taste. We all know the ratio of salty/sweet or sweet/sour. But think of virtually any meal you have, and soon you will realize that this theory exists in almost everything we consume. Let’s take for example your average pasta meal, the substance and neutrality of the pasta, carefully balanced by the pungency of the tomato sauce. Or the fried chicken dinner, all of the flavors might appear to be the same, salty, greasy goodness, but the crisp, crunch of the skin, balancing out the juicy succulence of the chicken is what makes this meal.
So let’s return to the ideal example of Baskin-Robbins frozen dairy dessert. Yes it’s sweet, yes it’s rich, but this ice cream contains the salty/sweet combination I have so come to appreciate. You see, the ice cream is rich chocolate, but not overly so, swirled in with crunchy ribbons of peanut butter. But this is not just your average, overly sweet butter like a Skippy or a Jif, this is true peanut butter, slightly salty, delightfully subtle, maintaining the careful balance of this difficult to achieve ratio. We have the flavor combination, let’s move on to the crunchy/smooth. The velvety smoothness of the chocolate ice cream, blending with the crunchy bite of the peanut butter; almost warm to the palate as the bits of ice cream melt away around it.
Oh, how I dream of you sweet manna, delightful bite of ratio heaven. I can only thank the glorious Mr. Baskin and the magnificent Mr. Robbins for creating such a splendid culmination to a meal.
