Frozen assets — When it comes to ice cream, regional variations thrive throughout the country

MILWAUKEE — Grape-Nuts in New England. Blue Moon in Wisconsin. Red bean in Hawaii. Date in Palm Springs. Baklava in Utah.

Vanilla and chocolate may rule America's collective palate when it comes to ice cream, but regional — some would say unusual — variations nevertheless thrive throughout the country.

These are ice creams loved as much for their familiarity as for their exotic taste. It's a comfort food thing. Breakfast cereals and beans may seem odd additions, but for the right people they provide ties to regional or ethnic flavors from childhood.

Which is why when Roger Gifford and his brother, John, began making ice cream at their family's Skowhegan, Maine, dairy in 1980, they turned to decades-old recipes saved from their grandparents' ice cream business in Connecticut.

One of their original flavors, Grape-Nuts, ranks behind only vanilla and chocolate in supermarket sales for the company, says Mike Brandt, sales and marketing director for Gifford's Ice Cream.

"Grape-Nut is a phenomenon," he says.

Many people combine it with another New England staple, drizzling warm maple syrup over ice cream.

"It is a northern New England traditional flavor," Brandt says. "You won't see that outside of northern New England."

People begin to develop their ice cream preferences early in childhood, often associating their favorite flavor with positive experiences, says John Nihoff, an instructor at The Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.

"Ice cream gets set up as a reward for kids," he says. "'You did well on your report card, so let's take you for ice cream."'

Which may explain the popularity of Blue Moon ice cream in Wisconsin and Michigan, where it is made by several small dairies. The bright blue ice cream with a taste reminiscent of Froot Loops breakfast cereal was created in Milwaukee around 1950, says Andrew Plennert, owner of Chicago's Edgar A. Weber & Co., which now owns the formula.

Ann Filip, 45, of New Lenox, Ill., says she and her family discovered it during a stay at the Kalahari Resort in the Wisconsin Dells. She and her husband already were fans of Superman, another brightly colored ice cream with a hard-to-define taste.

"So Blue Moon was just cool," Filip says.