Last summer we wrote about Dreyer's contest to find "Official Kid Tasters" for its ice cream. We're proud to report that two of the 10 winning youth are from Utah.
Bennet Motta, 13, of Salt Lake City, and Haley Pardo, 9, of Taylorsville, are traveling to Dreyer's ice cream factory in San Francisco Bay Area next month, where they will taste-test gallons of Dreyer's top-secret flavors during a marathon tasting session to ensure the very best "kid-approved" ice cream.
The two will also get a behind-the-scenes tour of the factory, and will receive a year's supply of ice cream (so their taste buds will still get a workout throughout the year).
The Utah kids were selected from more than 12,000 entries who wrote essays on why they would be good for the job.
Bennet wrote that "13-year-old guys would, in general, probably be the best taster group for Dreyer's Ice Cream. First, we are champion ice cream eaters, and second, we care nothing about calories or fat, because at this age we can eat anything and only get taller, not fatter!"
Haley convinced the judges that she would be an ideal ice cream taster by pointing out that "if you told me I had to clean my room to get a bowl of ice cream, I would! This is saying a lot because my room is very messy!"
The 10 winners will learn taste-testing tips from John Harrison, Dreyer's Official Ice Cream Taster. After tasting more than 180 million gallons of ice cream, he's become so proficient that his taste buds are insured for a cool million dollars.
Kids who missed out on the Dreyer's contest can get involved in another contest to mark the centennial of Barnum's Animals Crackers. (And probably for the past 100 years, we have all been calling them "Animal Crackers" rather than "Animals Crackers." It just sounds better.)
The company will debut a new animal to join the usual menagerie of edible cookie cut-outs, as always, caged in the little red box-on-a-string. From now until Dec. 31, the public can choose from four animals — koala, walrus, penguin or cobra. You can also enter at www.NabiscoWorld.com to win a grand prize of a $10,000 U.S. Savings Bond.
If it's been awhile since you've munched on these sweet snacks, here's a refresher course on just what's in that box: two bears (one sitting, one standing), bison, camel, cougar, elephant, giraffe, gorilla, hippopotamus, jaguar, kangaroo, lion, monkey, rhinoceros, seal, sheep, tiger, wolf and zebra.
Since 1902, there have been 53 different animals, but only four — lions, tigers, bears and elephants — have stayed constant for almost an entire century.
In the late 1800s, animal-shaped cookies were imported from England. Soon America's bakers began making them, including the Dozier-Weyl Cracker Company of St. Louis and the Holmes and Coutts Company of New York City. These were predecessors of the National Biscuit Company, now known as the Nabisco Biscuit Division of Kraft Foods.
Sometimes known as "circus crackers" and other times as just "animals," these slightly sweet crackers were varied a little by the local bakeries that made them. As the 19th century drew to a close, bakeries began to unite. Under the National Biscuit Company banner, Animal Biscuit Crackers were made. Then in 1902, Animal Biscuits assumed the legal trademark name of Barnum's Animals.
The box was designed with a string so it could be hung from a Christmas tree that holiday season, and it became a year-round favorite. In 1995, all the crackers were changed to endangered species for a limited time, to help raise money for the World Wildlife Fund.
The latest change in this long-time treat: in July, the crackers were fortified with calcium.
E-mail: vphillips@desnews.com