There's No Crying at the Cow...

Until you find out your beloved dulce de leche has been replaced by something called "salted caramel." According to the ice cream dude behind the counter, they no longer use the base they used to use for my beloved dulce. I was getting a malt (with extra malt) so I can't be sure, but I'm pretty sure I do not care for the salted caramel as much as the dulce de leche.

I had always assumed this was their most popular flavor, so I'm really surprised they've changed it. Has anyone else tried the new (not) dulce de leche?

I always thought I was the only one that ordered a malt with extra malt

No, that's the only way I (and now my kids) order them. They are delicious!!

[Robin Garr]

I can't comment as to the malt, but I noticed the other day (at the Clifton shop) that the name had changed from Spanish to English. Tim and Roy weren't around to ask, but I just ASSumed that they changed the name to make it more accessible to gringos. The idea of an ingredient change hadn't occurred to me.

Right, Robin. That's what I assumed as well. But I ordered my malt made with dulce de leche, and that's when the guy explained that they had changed their base, and now they had salted caramel instead.

Why in the heck would one change the greatest ice cream flavor . . . ever?

[Robin Garr]

We went by the Clifton shop yesterday and asked the guy behind the counter if it was just a name change or a new recipe, and he confirmed that it's a completely different ice cream. <sob>

I sacrificed myself for the good of the whole and went by the Bardstown Road shop today and asked to sample the Salted Caramel. The person behind the counter said they had changed the recipe to make it "healthier." Healthier? High fat ice cream?

Oh well . . .

The ice cream is lighter in color and lighter in flavor. It is good, but nothing like the knock-your-socks-off depth of flavor in the Dulce de leche. A little bit like a good mild chocolate vs. an excellent dark chocolate.

Whoops. Didn't see this thread. I had already complained about the same issue on the other Comfy Cow thread:

I'm pulling this old thread back up because Comfy Cow has changed it's ice cream, and not for the better. I went to the Herr Lane shop several weeks ago because I was jonesing for Dulce de Leche del Salte. It is now called Salted Caramel which should have tipped me off. I got my cone and instead of the amazing, dense, complex, flavorful, ice cream I remembered from last summer and the summer before and the summer before that, I got a fluffy, flat tasting mess. I could have done better buying a half gallon of Kroger brand for the same price.

The server told me that they changed the flavoring to a "natural" flavor. I don't think that is all that they changed.

Highly disappointed, and I really will miss my favorite ice cream.

Sob, it's gone corporate and managed to ruin what made it great.

[Robin Garr]

Whoops. Didn't see this thread. I had already complained about the same issue on the other Comfy Cow thread.

Sob, it's gone corporate and managed to ruin what made it great.

Margie, I've asked Tim Koons-McGee to drop by the forum and talk to us about this. He's a good guy. I hope and expect he'll take us up on the invitation.

In order to avoid confusion, I hope you don't mind if I delete your duplicate post in the old thread?

I hope so Robin. I like him, but the change is so drastic and obviously commercially driven, I wonder how much input he has into the business anymore. It seems to now be driven by industrial production for franchise distribution.

[Robin Garr]

Well, I chatted with both Tim and Roy, and Roy was kind enough to write down a long and, I believe, thoroughly sincere response. I'll just turn over the mike to Roy and let him take it away!

Hi Robin,

Tim told me you were getting a lot of discussion on Hotbytes about our changing from Dulce de Leche de Salte to Salted Caramel last summer and asked me to give you the scoop

Well, in the past 1-2 years we have been going back through our recipes and "cleaning them up" so to speak. By that I mean that where we had artificial, or less than desirable, ingredients and chemical dyes, we have tried to make them all natural. We still have some work to do before we are finished, but most of our ice creams are all natural now.

Changing the Dulce de Leche de Salte was one of the hardest decisions we had to make, because we had been known for that flavor being such a stand out and favorite. However, at the end of the day we decided we wanted to take the artificial chemicals out where we could. While we know the Salted Caramel is not "exactly" like the Dulce de Leche, we felt it was very close and still a great flavor...and ALL NATURAL!

I hope this helps those who questioned why we did this better understand where we were coming from when we made this decision. If profits had been the motivator, we would not have made the change.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to respond to this thread ... We still are really trying to do the right thing, even as we grow.

Any day they don't have S'mores ice cream available for purchase is a day for crying at the Cow.

/yes, I'm the weird short dude who comes in and asks if you have S'Mores and then leaves if you say no, Cow!

[Robin Garr]

So, we went by the Clifton shop today, and I got the "salty caramel."

I have to say that I almost always try the new special flavors each month, so I hadn't visited the dulce de leche de salte for a long time ... maybe years. My memory may be faulty. But I liked this version just fine, and it didn't strike me as different from what I remembered.

The young woman behind the counter was up on it, and said that it was mostly natural before - that's the Cow's style - but that it had used one artificial flavor and one artificial color. The new one is all natural, and in an age when the Big Food industry feeds us out of chemistry sets, I like that.

I have to admit that I like the move to all natural, but it does taste different.