Taste takes teaching
Justice Ice Cream’s products are divided into four categories by price and rarity of ingredients: premium, top, select, and classic. For example, their “Milk Wine” flavor requires first brewing some coffee, then adding cocoa and whiskey to create a liqueur which is made into ice cream. Their using this complicated process rather than just flavoring it with commercial liqueur is what places this variety in the premium range. Meanwhile, more common flavorings like peanut, taro, and passionfruit come under the “classic” umbrella. While the cheapest of the classics might be just NT$50, some people still find that a bit pricey, says Onion Li. “This is about 50% more than similarly flavored commercial brands, but the ingredients cost five or ten times as much as those the commercial brands use.”
The difference lies in the concentrated flavorings that commercial brands use. For example, commercial pineapple ice cream can be made by adding just a few drops of concentrate and no actual pineapple, whereas Li’s ice cream uses as much as 300‡500 grams of pineapple per kilogram of ice cream.
Li says that such flavorings have slowly pervaded the whole industry, making it difficult for businesses using authentic ingredients to get by and forcing them to get on the bandwagon. When concentrated flavorings replace the products of farmers’ hard work, farmland falls into disuse and is ultimately snapped up by developers. As people have become accustomed to artificial flavorings and flavor enhancers over time, they have gradually become numb to natural flavors. The cumulative impact of these drips and drops is something the public has never really contemplated.
To address this, Li travels around holding “taste education” sessions, explaining the potential impacts of artificial additives on human health. For example, overseas research has found that some additives have a positive correlation with hyperactivity, allergies, and even gastrointestinal cancer. “Natural flavors have layers to them,” says Li. He has children try ice cream made with real fruit, teaching them to appreciate the subtleties: “At first there’s a sourness, followed by sweetness. Then there’s a milky flavor, and after you swallow, a fruity flavor lingers in the nasal cavity.” This kind of aftertaste, he says, is key to distinguishing natural foods. While artificially flavored ice cream may taste fruity while you eat it, once you swallow, there’s nothing following it. Planting the seeds of educated tastes, Li believes, will mean that “one day, we’ll be able to buy truly safe foods all over Taiwan.”
For their delicious ice creams, 1982 de glacée carefully selects environmentally friendly ingredients like high-welfare eggs, artisanal brown sugar, and free-trade organic cocoa. (photo by Jimmy Lin)