Molly Moon to eliminate out corn syrup

We were a bit surprised to be told the other day that Molly Moon‘s ice cream contains corn syrup. We knew that the ice cream is made from a base bought from Snoqualmie Creamery (the “homemade” claim, we assume, means they mix the base with the flavorings in the homey-feeling store), and that while Molly Moon prides herself on the use of “local and organic ingredients”, that just means that some of the ingredients they use are local and/or organic, not all. For example, the bacon in the maple bacon ice cream is organic bacon from Vashon Island, but we’ve seen the jug of restaurant grade maple flavoring that appears to be neither local nor organic.

Still, we assumed the basic ingredients were milk, cream, sugar, etc., rather than corn syrup and the like, so we decided to check in with Molly herself. Here’s what she had to say:

not high fructose — but there is a tiny bit of corn syrup — less than 1%.  but we’re now a big enough dairy customer for snoqualmie gourmet that they’re taking it out for us.

The distinction is an important one: high fructose corn syrup is the ingredient that is increasingly being associated with the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in the U.S. Regular corn syrup is not. Still, it’s not what we think of when we think of Molly Moon’s, so we applaud her for leaning on Snoqualmie to eliminate it. We’re curious to see if we’ll be able to taste the difference once it’s gone.