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Tuesday, February 4, 2020

New York’s next step in boozy ice cream: Hard liquor? - newyorkupstate.com

First it was wine. Then came beer and hard cider.

Now state lawmakers are considering adding hard liquor (whiskey, vodka etc.) to the list of alcoholic beverages that can legally be added to ice cream for sale in New York.

The resulting ice cream would be limited to no more than 5% alcohol, just as the current wine, beer and cider ice creams are. (That’s about the same level of alcohol in a typical American lager, like Budweiser).

You’d need to be 21 to buy it, according to the bills introduced by Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Binghamton and State Sen. Rachel May, D-Syracuse. That also matches the restriction on wine, beer and cider ice cream.

“This really opens up the opportunity for lots of new flavors and combinations,” said Andy Lagoe, co-owner of Gilligan’s Ice Cream in Sherburne, N.Y., the small company that championed the addition of beer and hard cider to the boozy ice cream list in 2018.

“Then think of all the cocktail flavors you can try,” Lagoe said. Gilligan’s has already experimented with such flavors as a Fireball Whiskey Ice Cream. Other possibilities, he said, could include Rum & Coke, Strawberry Daiquiri, Margarita and Bourbon Vanilla.

The key to adding liquor to the ice cream will be figuring out how to reduce the alcohol without losing flavor, he said.

The introduction of alcohol to ice cream in New York started in 2008, after a lobbying effort led by Mercer’s Ice Cream in Boonville, Oneida County. Mercer’s has now became well known and widely available.

It took 10 years, and lobbying by Gilligan’s, for beer and cider to be added.

The new bill to add liquor didn’t require an intensive lobbying effort, Lagoe said. “It was really just a casual mention in a conversation with (Lupardo)," he said.

Only a handful of entrepreneurs have jumped into the boozy ice cream business, with Gilligan’s and Mercer’s still among the best know, Several restaurants in the New York City area have done it.

Gilligan’s boozy ice creams are now available in Central New York, and as far as Alexandria Bay, Binghamton and Buffalo, Lagoe said.

“It’s catching on,” he said. “We’re now all across the state.”

Related:

-- Utica’s Saranac Brewery to launch hard seltzer -- with a twist

-- Top drinks trends of the 2010s and how they played out in CNY

Don Cazentre writes about craft beer, wine, spirits and beverages for NYup.com, syracuse.com and The Post-Standard. Reach him at dcazentre@nyup.com, or follow him at NYup.com, on Twitter or Facebook.

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New York’s next step in boozy ice cream: Hard liquor? - newyorkupstate.com
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