You might recall the major conniption fit I had last summer when I discovered that our very own Blue Bell Creamery of Brenham had decided not to market a flavor that they called Delta Blues in Austin, the bluesiest city in the home state of the company. I postulated that if there was any city that deserved to be included in the distribution list of a music-themed ice cream, it was here, the live music capital of the world. They chose to market it exclusively in the immediate area around Memphis, Tenn., a town whose motto is “We Have the Blues, and Many Ways to Cure It,” as if losing the blues were a goal to shoot for.

In Austin, we’re proud of having the blues, and thankfully, cooler heads prevailed at Blue Bell management; they realized that we are just as bluesy, if not more so, than those poseurs in Memphis. We are privy to experience the glory of Delta Blues Blue Bell Ice Cream for a limited time. Blue Bell, as it turns out, has a rotating list of short-term ice-cream flavors timed with the harvest of seasonal fruits and a list of regular, year-round flavors (see www.bluebell.com; there, you’ll also find information on Blue Bell’s centennial celebration contest, Taste of the Country, which gives consumers the opportunity to create and name new regional flavors).

When you pop open the top on a gallon of Delta Blues, you’ll find a sinfully rich mixture of Blue Bell’s classic vanilla blended with a very liberal swirl of sweetened blueberries and blueberry sauce, with chunks of pie crust that somehow magically remain flaky and crunchy, even when immersed in a frozen liquid. It will definitely seduce you into fits of brain freeze from eating it too fast. It won’t be around forever, so cruise the freezer aisle of your local supermarket, and stock up on several tubs of Delta Blues. Let’s prove to Blue Bell that we deserve to have ’em!

This article appears in April 27 • 2007.

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Mick Vann is a retired Austin chef who is a food writer and restaurant critic, cookbook author, restaurant consultant, and recipe developer. He moonlights as a University of Texas horticulturist with a propensity for ethnic eats and international food, particularly of the Asian persuasion, but he also knows his way around a plate of soul food or barbecue.