Mendota Heights Woman Named 'Hometown Favorite' Ice Cream Semi-Finalist

Mendota Heights resident Mary Seefeld is out to win the Kemps Hometown Favorite Ice Cream Flavor competition with a double scoop of Americana—ice cream and baseball.

Seefeld’s flavor is one of 10 semi-finalists in the contest to find a new Kemps Throwback Original Recipe flavor. The winning concoction could be produced for grocery store shelves in 2013, and the winning ice cream creator will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

What does Seefeld want to dish out? Her flavor, “Ballpark Blast,” swirls chopped peanuts and Cracker Jack pieces into a vanilla malt ice cream.

“I did it for fun and I never thought that they would pick it, but they must think it sounds good,” said Seefeld.

A winning flavor depends on taste potential, creativity, inspiration and unique ingredients, according to Logan Julstrom, a Kemps food technologist.

The flavor has plenty of throwback spirit and inspiration from Seefeld's childhood. 

“The best memory I have from when I was a kid was going to ballgames with my Grandma," she said.

Along with those trips to Met Stadium came the treats: ice cream malt cups, peanuts or Cracker Jacks.

Other semi-final flavors include an adventurous bacon-cheesecake, mini-donut, “Snow S’More” and “Metropolitan Stadi-yum,” which is a similar baseball themed variation.

Seefeld said she’s impressed by the competition and wishes other ice cream flavor creators the best of luck.

“I look at all those flavors and I think I personally would purchase most of them,” said Seefeld.

How to vote:

You can vote for a flavor online through July 11. One vote a day is allowed.

The two flavors with the most votes will be announced July 30 and move on to the finals. The finalists will complete another round of online voting, and those two flavors will be produced and sampled at the Minnesota State Fair Aug. 23-30 where votes will also be tallied. The online scores, State Fair scores, and the scores of a yet-to-be announced celebrity judge’s panel will all be used to determine the winner.

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