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I received Sweet Spot by Amy Ettinger for review. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links and I will receive compensation if you click through and make a purchase.
About Sweet Spot
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.
My Thoughts on Sweet Spot
Mm, the sweet sweet taste of ice cream. I eat it year round, but summer lends a hand in justifying a bowl or cone of the cool treat any time of day. I went into reading Sweet Spot thinking I’d discover some new ice cream parlor nearby to try out. Instead, I learned to get really good ice cream, custard, or even gelato I may need to travel outside my home state! Not what I was hoping to learn.
However, Amy kindly left a few ice cream recipe’s sprinkled throughout the book. I love making ice cream, especially my Peanut Butter Ice Cream, but now I’ll have to try Amy’s recipes as she uses a bit more science to create her recipes than my “let’s toss some ingredients together and hope it works” method.
I loved reading about what makes ice cream, ice cream, and how it differs from gelato more so in name than the actual product. I had always wondered what the difference was. When Amy took a master class to learn how to make ice cream, I was intrigued and pondered taking it myself – decided I was good with my non-scientific ice cream instead, and the store bought that always fills my need for a sweet treat.
