Sweet assignment for Mariner Middle eighth-graders

Mariner Middle School paraprofessional Nancy Berg had a sweet idea when she looked for ways to brighten the day for students dealing with pandemic restrictions.

Berg turned to friend Chip Hearn, owner of The Ice Cream Store in Rehoboth, and asked if the eighth-grade students could have a challenge to create and name a new ice cream flavor. Hearn jumped on the idea.

Homerooms were tasked with inventing a flavor and pitching their new concoctions as a product, which took a couple weeks, Hearn said. 

“They did a heck of a good job of being entrepreneurs,” Hearn said. “And the key thing is, they got to have fun.”

Principal Fred Best had the job of choosing the best recipe, which he said had to meet certain criteria.

“It had to have cookie dough,” he said between bites of the winning flavor, Chocolate Deluxe, created by teacher Kathleen Fisher’s cohort B homeroom students.

The class chose to use a sweet cream base with chocolate syrup, Oreos, brownies, cookie dough and chocolate chips mixed in – everything but the kitchen sink, Hearn said. Woodside Farm Creamery in Hockessin made the ice cream, as it does for The Ice Cream Store, Hearn said. 

Chocolate Deluxe will be entered into The Ice Cream Store’s 14th taste-testing contest, set for 12 to 6 p.m., Thursday, May 20, Hearn said. The contest wasn’t held in 2020 because of the pandemic, Hearn said, but in 2019, about 3,000 people tasted and voted on new flavors to add to The Ice Cream Store’s extensive list of offerings.

Other flavors proposed by Mariner Middle students included Moldy Muffins, a sweet cream with chocolate chips, green sprinkles and muffin pieces; Triple Threat, a cake batter-based ice cream with caramel and cookie dough; and Marshmallow Coco-Fluff, a chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips, Oreos and Fluff marshmallow creme.