(Brittney Chew / Sun News Photography Editor)
Two new ice cream flavors are coming to Cornell Dairy for Homecoming Weekend, in honor of President Elizabeth Garrett’s official inauguration and Touchdown the unofficial mascot.
Cornell Dairy hosted a student-voted contest online and on campus this September to choose a name for the new flavor dedicated to Garrett’s inauguration. The contest yielded “24 Garrett Swirl” as the winner, beating out rivals “Garrett’s Chocolate Bar Association” and “Cornelle Chocolate Chunk.”
The flavor will be revealed today at the Cornell Community Picnic taking place on the Ag Quad from noon to 2 p.m., immediately following the 10 a.m. inauguration ceremony. Samples will be available to the public.
In addition to 24 Garrett Swirl, Homecoming attendees will be able to sample a new Touchdown-themed flavor on Saturday morning at Teagle Hall, when President Garrett reveals the new Class of 1915 plaza and Touchdown statue.
Corey Earle ’07, associate director for student and young alumni programs, said Cornell Dairy ice cream is one part of campus life that brings Cornellians together.
“Ice cream is one of those aspects of the Cornell experience that unites generations of Cornellians, so I think there’s a nostalgia factor,” Earle said. “When alumni return to campus, the Dairy Bar is often on their schedule. A new ice cream flavor is just one way that Cornell uniquely celebrates momentous occasions, and it’s no surprise that people get excited about ice cream.”
Special flavors have entered the Dairy Bar’s menu over the years to commemorate historic events and figures at the University, including Clocktower Pumpkin, a pumpkin-flavored ice cream named after the 1997 clocktower pumpkin prank. According to Earle, the flavor became “a seasonal favorite for many years.” As an unofficial mascot, Touchdown is not alone in his namesake ice cream flavor either: Cornelia, the Dairy Bar’s mascot, has been immortalized as a “mainstay” in Cornelia’s Dark Secret.
Most recently, Cornell Dairy made news when it revealed a new flavor named Sweet CORNell, dedicated to the University’s sesquicentennial, which included sweet corn kernels and salted caramel. The flavor was designed by a group of undergraduate students in Food Science 1101: Science and Technology of Foods that “wanted to connect with Cornell’s history, according to Earle.
“Corn is a unity crop that connects with Cornell's national and global presence while also tying with Cornell’s agricultural history and Nobel Prize-winning work by Barbara McClintock ’23 M.A. ’25 Ph.D. ’27 on corn genetics,” Earle said.
Garrett is only the newest in a series of Cornell presidents to be honored by inaugural ice cream flavors. According to Earle, when President Emeritus Jeffrey Lehman ’77 took office in 2003, the Dairy Bar served a flavor called “Ezra and Andrew’s World View” to honor Cornell’s global presence. The special flavor incorporated an espresso ice cream with fudge swirl, vanilla and cinnamon, hazelnuts and pralines, according to the University.
In 2006, the Dairy Bar also unveiled “Banana-Berry Skorton” in honor of President Emeritus David Skorton’s inauguration. The ice cream featured banana and raspberry swirls in a chocolate ice cream base.
Deanna Simons, quality manager and academic programs coordinator for Cornell Dairy, said 24 Garrett Swirl required full attention for two days to produce and prepare.
Simons said the University expects up to 5,000 guests on the Ag Quad for the Cornell Community Picnic.
