AMHERST, Mass. — May 8, 2025 — A bold blend of sweet, salty, spicy, and smoky secured the top prize at the 11th Annual UMass Amherst Ice Cream Competition, as food science majors unveiled an eclectic array of flavors to a packed audience of more than 200 students, faculty, and community members.
The winning creation, $treet Nut$, was inspired by the roasted nuts commonly sold by New York City street vendors. The innovative flavor featured a base of peanut butter, cinnamon, molasses, and dulce de leche, with mix-ins like dark chocolate-covered pretzels and a surprising “magic ingredient”—liquid smoke.
“I’ve seen nothing like this before,” said Judy Herrell, CEO of Herrell’s Ice Cream & Bakery and longtime mentor to the class. “There is a lot going on, but the flavor profile is very interesting.” Herrell served on a four-person judging panel and will bring all five student-conceived flavors to her Northampton shop on a rotating basis.
The winning team included Luke Bangert, Nicole Buldo, Abby Harnett, and Sam Heins, representing Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Vermont.
Held in the food science department’s sensory lab, the event was the culmination of a semester-long capstone project, giving senior students the chance to apply scientific principles to real-world product development. Attendees were treated to two-ounce samples of each flavor, hand-packed into compostable containers by the student teams.
UMass instructor Charmaine Koo, who has organized the event in recent years, noted that this year’s entries were “a little more exotic” than in the past. “All of them are winners,” she said.
The People’s Choice Award, determined by audience vote, went to Date Night, a delicately sweet ice cream featuring hand-mashed red dates, goji berries, and osmanthus honey. Described by its creators as “a memory waiting to happen,” the flavor won praise from both attendees and judges.
The Date Night team was made up of Natalie Barney, Ryan Kim, Danshi Li, Jessie Qui, and Bryan Yu, hailing from Massachusetts, South Korea, China, and Missouri.
The panel of judges—Herrell, production manager Rose Ritter, UMass Dining pastry chef Pamela Adams, and UMass career advisor Maryann Tebben—scored the flavors on texture, overrun (amount of incorporated air), aroma, taste, sustainability, and ease of replication.
Second place was awarded to Tahini in a Bottle, an inventive blend of sesame and almond with swirls of pomegranate and fudge. The team behind the flavor included Annie Jones, Michelle Li, Grace Campbell Maillet, and Aviva Stein.
Third place went to Funky Monkey, a rich ice cream reminiscent of banana bread and cheesecake. It combined banana with four cheeses—brie, a brie-gorgonzola blend called borgonzola, goat cheese, and cream cheese—then added dried apricots soaked in rum and brown butter-dipped graham cracker pieces. The team featured Liam Allard, Kyle Donovan, Hazel Hoang, Minh Nguyen, and Alex Turnberg.
The final flavor, Guavalicious, impressed with its tropical flair, using guava paste, lemon juice, salt, and ground cardamom, punctuated by chunks of cream cheese for added texture. It was crafted by Lauren Ho, Belle Jonglertrakul, Millie Nguyen, Shuli Rosenfeld, and Xiaoke Xiang.
While the event was full of flavor and fun, it also served a deeper purpose. As a capstone course, the competition challenges students to synthesize knowledge in food microbiology, chemistry, processing, marketing, shelf-life, and nutrition—skills essential as they prepare to enter the food science industry.
Herrell summed up the evening: “They’re all wonderfully inventive, forward-thinking flavors. And a lot of fun. We enjoyed all of them.”
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