Ice cream adds a scoop of Oscars' favorites

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Cold Stone Creamery mixes flavorings into ice cream to suit each customer. The company has prepared five flavors themed to the current Oscar nominations. Cold Stone Creamery

Cold Stone Creamery Waikiki's Valerie Lamoureux stopped by The Advertiser on a recent hot and sticky Friday with a cooler full of freshly mixed ice cream from her Kalakaua Avenue store and a request. Could we handicap the winner of Cold Stone Creamery's nationwide Best Ice Cream Creation in a Motion Picture contest?

Uh, was "Saving Private Ryan" more worthy of a 1998 Best Picture Oscar than winner "Shakespeare In Love," Valerie?

To celebrate Academy Awards season, the premium ice cream store known for blending its flavors to order on frozen granite stones with more than 41 mix-ins, from Hershey's syrup to apple pie filling, is promoting five new flavors themed to this year's Best Picture competitors. And the nominees are:

• Chicagdough — French vanilla ice cream with cookie dough, chocolate chips, fudge and caramel.
• The Cake Hours — Cake batter ice cream with brownies, fudge and rainbow sprinkles.
• Gangs of New York Cheesecake — Cheesecake ice cream with chocolate chips, black cherries and fudge.
• Lord of the Oreos: The Two Cookies — Sweet cream ice cream with Double Oreos, chocolate chips and fudge.
• The Pecanist — Sweet cream ice cream with double pecans, fudge and caramel.

The odds makers who have "Chicago" all but guaranteed to win Best Picture on Sunday must have something right.

Final results were oh-so-close, but in the end Chicagdough tap-danced its way across our taste buds, just a hairy foot ahead of Lord of the Oreos. Our 13 Advertiser tasters found The Cake Hours about as yawn-inducing as it namesake flick, placing it waaaaaaay behind all of the top four nominees.

Cold Stone promised the five Best Picture flavors will be available at stores through Sunday, but you'll still be able to choose from all of the above mix-ins long after Daniel Day Lewis and Renee Zelwegger walk out of the Kodak Theatre with those Best Actor and Best Actress upset wins — or not.

Vote for your favorite flavors at Cold Stone Creamery, or at www.coldstonecreamery.com.