Sweet Spot: An Ice Cream Binge Across America

Sweet Spot starts with a bang, grabbing the reader’s attention with superb writing and good stories, naturally, all related to ice cream. But as the reader continues paging through chapter after chapter, the endless, uninterrupted text becomes plain boring. Even though author Amy Ettinger is a good essayist and writer, the question in the reader’s mind is who she envisioned as readers for this book. Not cooks, not ice cream enthusiasts, not food scientists or any scientists. This hefty volume, complete with an extensive list of Notes, may find its place in a library’s food science reference collection at best. Ice cream is America’s favorite dessert, and you would think readers would be delighted to read about it. Perhaps in a short essay, but this book is filled with fine details about history, manufacturing, competition, economics, and the business of ice cream making. A few tiny, poor quality black-and-white historic photos break the monotony of the text but not enough to make this book enjoyable. Ettinger relates good personal stories she comes across while she is researching ice cream throughout the country. Her research is commendable.