I’ve never used the food delivery service Instacart. I have used both Uber and Lyft services when traveling. With their phone apps, those services are easier to use than conventional cabs, at least for me. I don’t travel very often, and I don’t routinely use ride services. However, when I have a meeting in a distant city, I usually use a ride service to get from the airport to a hotel. Since I have the ride services apps on my phone, I keep getting alerts about using Instacart. “Free” phone apps typically use advertising as a means to generate income. When it comes to Instacart, I generally don’t know what I’m talking about.

However, I did notice when Instacart recently published the results of a survey of the favorite Ice Cream flavors in the United States. In addition to the national statistics, the report included state-by-state findings. It came as no surprise to me that in the US, vanilla is the favorite flavor, followed by chocolate in second place. I was surprised that cookies & cream is more popular than strawberry, but I would have correctly selected mint chocolate chip to round out the top five.

I make it a point to keep ice cream in the freezer even though we live within walking distance of an excellent ice cream store. Ice cream is a grandparent treat. As grandparents, we can indulge our grandchildren a bit more than parents. Our grandchildren have access to healthy, nutritious foods at home and have parents who are careful to ensure that they get good food. But they don’t always have dessert after a good meal. When they come to their grandparents’ house, dessert is a tradition, even though we don’t always have dessert when the grandkids aren’t around.

Last evening, when our son told our youngest grandson that it was time to go home, he replied, “Ice cream first.” He has been known to go to the freezer in our kitchen to remind us that a sweet treat is part of a visit. We do try to respect the parents’ wishes and have been known to enforce their usual limit of one ice cream per day.

At our house, vanilla is usually available. It goes well with cherry pie, birthday cake, and other desserts. Lately, I have been keeping mint chip on hand because our grandchildren also enjoy it. The other state around here is moose tracks. When it comes to that flavor, the Instacart survey surprised me. It also raised questions about my understanding of the flavor's history.

When I was growing up in Montana, Moose Tracks ice cream was available from only one brand. Wilcoxson’s Ice Cream in Livingston, Montana, has been producing the treat since 1912. We lived 30 miles from the original dairy. They had some delicious and unique flavors. I’m sure that the first time I tasted peppermint stick ice cream, it came from Wilcoxson’s. I thought that moose tracks was a flavor developed by Wilcoxson’s.

After I grew up and moved away from Montana, one of the highlights of visiting home was a dish of Moose Tracks ice cream. I’ve told my grandchildren about the old days when you couldn’t get moose tracks in every grocery store, and different companies didn’t sell it. I thought that the flavor was eventually licensed to the Albertsons grocery chain.

The Instacart survey, however, says that Moose Tracks was first developed in Michigan. My version of the history of the flavor might be wrong. According to the Instacart survey, Moose Tracks is the most popular flavor in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Ohio. I get Michigan and Wisconsin, but seriously, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio? You would live your whole life in Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio and never see a moose.

I get butter pecan in North and South Carolina. They even pronounce pecan differently than I do, and they grow the nuts there. But Neapolitan in Rhode Island? Can that be the truth? I understand peanut butter chocolate being the favorite flavor in Maine. People up there think in their unique way. Coffee, as the favorite of Massachusetts and Vermont, isn’t a surprise. It matches some of my reactions to my infrequent visits to those states.
On the other hand, chocolate as the favorite of New Hampshire flies in the face of my hopes for the home state of Ben & Jerry’s. I suppose that company has too many flavors for any one to stand out. Still, I wonder how many people have never tasted Cherry Garcia.

All of the states in which I have lived, except Illinois, polled vanilla as the favorite flavor. I guess I’m glad I went to graduate school in Chicago, but I’m certain that moose tracks wasn’t the Illinois favorite when I lived there.

I learned from the Instacart survey that Rocky Road was developed by the California-based company Dreyer’s. It’s no surprise that it's the favorite flavor in California and Nevada. Nevada usually has more visitors from California than local Nevadans.

I was also interested in the Instacart list of top ice cream brands. Haagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s topped the list, with Tillamook coming in third. I have family in Tillamook, Oregon, and I have visited the original Tillamook creamery. They make excellent dairy products, including cheese, butter, and ice cream. I assumed that it was a local brand. However, it is marketed through most major grocery chains. I thought, however, that the fact that it is sold in all of the grocery stores around here might not mean that it is generally available in other parts of the country. I guess I was wrong about that.

According to the Instacart survey, I am not as knowledgeable about ice cream as I thought. Still, you don’t need to tell that fact to my grandchildren. Chances are pretty good that they wouldn’t believe you anyway. They seem to all agree that while Grandpa might not be much of an expert on technology and he definitely has strange tastes in music, he is a good source of ice cream.