Karie Anne's Frozen Desserts

At the old gas station across the street from KFC and Wal-Mart

This is a recently discovered desert trailer, painted bright yellow so as to catch one’s eye. Needless to say, I stopped at it anyway. It was a nice day outside, and a frozen dessert sounded delightful. Karie Anne’s specializing in Custard and Italian Ice. They also offer what is called Gelati. I was excited since it had been a while since I had eaten a good gelato, however, I was informed that a gelati is not gelato, but a combination of Italian Ice and Custard. This is where my education in the ice cream sciences comes in real handy. Custard is ice cream with higher egg content and a lower air content. Otherwise, custard is the same as ice cream. Just more egg. Italian Ice is very similar to a sorbet – non dairy, fruit based (usually juice or concentrate), with sugar and water added. Both are made in a similar process to ice cream. Italian Ice is not like shaved ice/sno-cones – it has the same consistency of ice cream, but without the cream. Gelato is like ice cream but with a lower milk fat, no cream and lower air content. The lower air content makes it taste creamier and more flavorful, but prevents it from lasting too long. But it wouldn’t last long anyway. It’s delicious, and not found in Rexburg. But custard, Italian Ice, and gelati are.

The gelati offered at Karie Anne’s is mix of Italian Ice and custard. The desserts are layered in, so you have a layer of Italian Ice, a layer of Custard, a layer of Italian Ice, and so on. The custard flavors are limited – chocolate, vanilla, and I believe strawberry if I recall. There is more variety in your Italian Ice flavors – all of whom are rather fruit based. Popular is the Tiger’s Blood, which sounds weird, but is peach and coconut mixed together. I was quite fond of their vanilla custard, it’s some of the best custard I’ve had. I much preferred the peach to the tiger’s blood Italian Ice, but that’s personal preference. The Italian Ice is still good. The desserts are reasonably priced, with Italian Ice being the cheapest and custard being the most expensive (still cheap) and gelati being in between. The only drag is their location on the edge of town, but if you are nearby, they are totally worth hitting up. Dang good vanilla custard.