Ray in Exile

A few months back I managed to get myself hooked on Starbucks Java Chip ice cream. Damn, but that stuff was good. Only problem was it was hard to find; really only Central Market and HEB have it near my house. Plus there was the whole “feeding the beast that is Starbucks” thing lingering in the background.
Well, Starbucks is dead to me now.
I have discovered bliss in the freezer at Whole Foods, in the form of Boulder Ice Cream.
No artificial flavoring. No rBGH milk. No preprocessed ingredients. (“We use real food!”) And funky flavors: my espresso chip fix, green tea, cinnamon, egg nog.
They don’t even buy chocolate chips. They import chocolate bricks from Germany and shave it themselves. Oh, baby. (I looked for the “Chocolate Shaver Intern” job posting on the web site, but no dice.)
I like that they’re a small operation. The email address for customer service sends you not to a sales department, but directly to some kid named Adam (who I think is 12). Accounting is this geeber named Scott. They have a sales & marketing MILF named Glennise. These are real people, not corporate-owned marketing images like *cough* *cough* Messrs. B & J.
I try, I don’t always succeed, but I at least try to buy local when I can, and when I can’t do that to at least buy indie. I’m not giving up on the local ice cream queen at Amy’s (the ice cream is too good, the scooper chicks are hot and the scooper guys are funny), but when I don’t want to stand in line at Amy’s or I need a storebought pint stashed away for when I get those late night blood sugar issues, I do Boulder now.