JACKSONVILLE, Fla.-
Chocolate-covered Ritz crackers, gooey caramel and vanilla ice cream–it doesn’t get much better than that, judges decided at an ice cream contest.
Judges said Jacksonville resident Tasha Callister’s entry, Puttin on the Ritz, tasted great and had a clever name. The flavor got top prize in the national Ben and Jerry’s Do Us a Flavor Contest in Waterbury, Vt. on Thursday.
But the combo initially had people thinking it was a bit gross, Callister said.
“People were asking me if I was pregnant. They said it sounded like something a pregnant lady would put together,” she told The Florida Times-Union.
Callister actually got the recipe from her grandmother, who would melt caramel over a camp fire and squish it between two crackers before covering it with chocolate.
Ben & Jerry’s summer-long Internet contest drew more than 40,000 entries, company spokesman Sean Greenwood said.
Callister, a Navy meteorologist, and the other four national finalists won ice cream for a year, in addition to the trip to Vermont. She also won an ice cream party for her family and friends. Ben & Jerry’s will create enough Puttin on the Ritz for the party, but there are no plans to put the new flavor in production, Greenwood said.
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