"Cold Stone Creamery" news and stories

Our new monthly installment features a portion of the popular guide, Eat This, Not That! in hopes that it will help you make better choices at casual and fast-food establishments.

I recently found myself in line at a local coffee shop behind a very nutrition-minded customer. She was asking the barista about the various food choices -- and she knew what she was talking about: Which fats were good or bad, how much sugar is reasonable, etc. That's why I couldn't believe her drink order: some kind of whipped mocha frappe concoction. All her caloric diligence went right out the window. I didn't want to be rude, so I held my tongue. But the woman made a classic mistake: She was watching what she ate, but not what she drank. The damage: more than 400 additional calories, guzzled from a plastic cup.

The fact is, a shocking number of the calories we consume at coffee joints doesn't come from the food. It comes from the coffee, and that's a shame. A cup of coffee in its raw, natural state contains only 5 calories, and coffee consumption has been linked to diminished risk of Alzheimer's [disease], better brain function, and even better memory. Coffee, in its purest, blackest form, is good for you. But too much of our coffee has been razzle-dazzled into sugary, fatty, pastrylike beverages: Instead of seizing the day with caffeinated focus, we're losing our grip on our diets.

That said, you can get your morning java boost without the accompanying belt expansion, if you know what to look for -- and what to avoid.

After the jump, an overview of the best -- and worst -- coffee drinks in America.

Salt and Pepper ice cream at Humphry Slocombe. Photo: Bradley Allen, Flickr.

Cold Stone Creamery last month introduced an ice cream that doesn't melt, which has led New York Magazine to say this week that Cold Stone's Jell-O-like dessert is proof positive that ice cream has become the latest playground for culinary innovation.

Indeeed, the world of frozen cream is much changed from those triple-threat Neapolitan cartons of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry many of us grew up with.

Just last month, our editors were smitten by Vosges' new curry coconut ice cream at the Fancy Food Show, Gourmet recently featured the wackiness that is San Francisco's Humphry Slocombe shop (prosciutto ice cream, anyone?) and Jeni's in Columbus, Ohio, peddles Thai chili ice cream alongside not so plain honey vanilla. In New York, Wylie Dusfresne serves a perfect miniature "everything" bagel -- made entirely of ice cream, naturally -- at his restaurant wd-50.

"Taking the international sweet tooth by storm." Surely such a phrase could only have been penned by the a PR person for an ice-cream chain.

And so it has.

This gem comes from the press release announcing Cold Stone Creamery's expansion into Mexico and Southeast Asia. I'll admit it's a better turn of phrase than "taking the international sweet tooth by cavity." Full disclosure, I've never eaten the Creamery's ice cream, I suppose I should since there's one in a mall near my house.

The Scottsdale, Ariz.-based purveyor of fresh-made ice-cream that's blended to order with mix-ins on, you guessed it, a cold stone, started scooping up international markets back in 2005, when it opened its first overseas store in Tokyo. Since then Coldstone has opened 22 more stores throughout Japan, Korea, China and Taiwan.

Its first Mexican store will open in September. There's been no word yet as to whether the Creamery stores South of the Border will forgo the signature stone slab in favor of a gigantic molcajete y tejolote to mix the ingredients with the ice cream. The company's next international markets will be Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia. I don't think it's gonna happen, but I'd love to see the Creamery's Southeast Asian stores use young coconut, jackfruit and some of the brightly colored gelatinous squiggles that are a staple of the region's frozen confections.

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I know Sarah has mentioned before that she isn't a big fan of Cold Stone Creamery ice cream, but I have a feeling this flavor may be enough to change her mind, especially knowing how much she adores French toast.

In an attempt to make ice cream acceptable at all times of the day, Cold Stone has introduced French toast-flavored ice cream (apparently only available for a limited time) and has made one of their custom desserts called "French Toast with the Most™ - the flavored ice cream topped with apple pie filling, pecans, and cinnamon.

Acceptable breakfast food? Maybe not, but it sounds tempting enough to try.

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Ice cream is very popular in Japan, and why not? It can get pretty darn hot there depending upon the location and time of year. I remember it being in the upper 90's°F in mid-September when I was in the Kobe/Kyoto/Osaka area a few years ago and ice cream and cold beer helped keep me functioning. Although not mixed in together. Talking about mix-ins, Cold Stone Creamery has been making a move on Japan. They now have eight+ stores and more all the time. They are trying to play catch-up with their competitors like Baskin-Robbins which has over 750 stores and who had 700,000 folks lined up last month when they spent two hours giving away free ice cream for Japans Ice Cream Day.

That's hard to beat, but Cold Stone Creamery has decided to leap right out of their competitor's market profile and seek to be the ice cream purveyor to the hip and cool. They are focusing on marketing to young urbanites; the makers, breakers, and trend-setters for Japans youth. I am sure you have seen or heard about them, especially the young women. They dress wildly creative, listen to cutting edge music, and are full of energy and vitality, constantly remaking themselves in their own concept of cool and hip. Their other target consumers are the uber fashion conscious "office ladies" as the young and single, female professionals are known.

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