Catalogues can be dry. This one — is cold.
Mitch Smith, owner and designer at Albany-based Hemstitch Mill, has produced the unofficial, quintessential catalog of … Stewart's Shops ice cream flavors — all 480 of them, past and present. It's called the "Stewart's Frozen Dessert Flavor Index."
WAMC’s Lucas Willard spoke with Mitch about his newly released passion project.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
Editor's note: This conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Willard: When did it occur to you that they needed a catalog that looks like a legal book that you would find in the New York State Capitol?
Smith: I mean, I think there was always, like, a lingering curiosity about what had come before because I knew that there were flavors from my childhood that I had not seen in quite some time. And so, I think, just like that lingering curiosity turned into a little bit of light research towards the end of last year, well, middle of last year probably, that then just turned into kind of just like an obsession.
Willard: You really jumped down the rabbit hole.
Smith: Yeah.
Willard: What was the flavor when you were a kid that was eaten away at the back of your brain?
Smith: It wasn't so much anything that was eating away. It was partially [that] I had this idea for a flavor that I wanted to have from Stewart's.
Willard: What's the flavor?
Smith: Fort Orange fudge.
Willard: OK, so orange and chocolate?
Smith: Yeah, I actually in the book included a letter to Stewart's pitching the flavor. So really, the research sort of started from a curiosity as to whether or not that was something that had existed before.
Willard: And how many flavors were you actually able to track down?
Smith: 516 flavor names, but 480 actual flavors. So some of those had, you know, multiple, like, temporary promotional renames — that kind of thing. So, you know, I don't count those towards the flavor total. But as far as what as what I know them to be, 480 unique flavors.
Willard: And did you actually have the chance to go verify these flavor names with the Stewart Shops company itself?
Smith: I have not even verified that they know the book exists.
Willard: OK
Smith: It was all independently researched, you know, from sources other than Stewart's.
Willard: I see that in each of the flavors there is a footnote that says, like, I just opened [the book] up: Hopscotch. This is a ice cream from 1999. There's no description of what it actually is, but you do refer to this flavor name appeared in the Adirondack Daily Enterprise on March 6, 1999.
Smith: Yep. So a lot of those are just pulled from from print ads and stuff. I don't think Stewart's actually had a website until 2000. So most of the stuff, or at least a good portion of it, from 2000 on, is pulled from, you know, like Wayback Machine scrapes of the old Stewart's website. You know, going through day by day on what's actually logged there to see what changes and stuff, and there are actually — this is an exclusive for you.
Willard: OK
Smith: There are two flavors that are just referred to as, like, retail flavor and then the year in here, and one of them I actually did contact Stewart's about to find out the name of it, because I knew that a flavor existed; [I] could not for the life of me find the name of it.
Willard: So you knew what it tasted like, or what it had.
Smith: I knew like the ingredients. I knew like why it was released, but I didn't know the name of the flavor. So my thought was, "OK, I'll contact Stewart's." Maybe they'd be willing to tell me the name of this flavor, and then when I have it, I'll be able to track that name down somewhere. That didn't happen. I could not find it anywhere in the entirety of the internet or anywhere else that I looked. So, in the interest of keeping it free from information that came directly from Stewart's, that's not actually included in the book.
Willard: Now you're leaving me on the edge of my seat here. So what is this mystery flavor?
Smith: I think that let me pull it up. I think that the reason it might be a mystery is because it's a really terrible flavor name.
Willard: OK
Smith: So, in the book, it's retail flavor 2000-01.
Willard: OK, I'm seeing that right now. OK.
Smith: And Stewart told me that flavor is called Hunch Crunch.
Willard: Hunch Crunch.
Smith: Yep, which I understand. You know, the horse racing, like, gambling aspect, like maybe making a bet on a hunch. When I heard that name, though, I pictured it like maybe people didn't.
Willard: And there is a description of retail flavor 2000-01.
Smith: Yep
Willard: Honey and hazelnut, chocolate-covered pecan ripple with an orange swirl, and chopped almonds.
Smith: Yep.
Willard: So yeah, it sounds like it could work.
Smith: Yeah, it sounds delicious. But the name's not in there because I'm just taking Stewart's word for it there.
Willard: And lastly, Mitch, I just want to ask you about the book. I mean, obviously, this is a passion project of yours as somebody who grew up in the area; you love Stewart's ice cream. The way it looks, this has a very sort of non-exciting look to it. Although it does look very authoritative. So, how did you actually find and dial in the look and feel of the book?
Smith: I mean, I think you nailed it right there. I wanted it to be authoritative, and also, you know, it's something that is meant to look nice on a shelf, but that's also meant to feel sturdy, like it can be used. Because we do, you know, in the back, have about a 70-page index, so that you can look up any flavor by any detail of it that you can think of, basically, along with a whole index of things that you probably wouldn't need to look a flavor up by, but that I just thought would be fun to include. You know, like all of the flavors that are potential knuckle tattoos. You know, all the eight-letter flavors.
Willard: And there's a little box on every page that you can check off if you've tried it, which I love.
Smith: Absolutely. Except for the ones that are verified to have been flavors that were not ever sold to the public at all, so the test flavors don't have that. But anything that a living human being that doesn't work for Stewart's may have tasted at some point has a checkbox.
Willard: Well, Mitch, thanks so much for sharing. I appreciate it.
Smith: Absolutely, thank you.
