The Provost Picks a Winner with New Howling Cow Ice Cream Flavor

If you scream for ice cream, you’ll have a Howling Cow over Caramel Mocha Latte, the latest flavor from NC State’s favorite creamery.

Caramel Mocha Latte — the Provost’s Pick — came from a collaboration between Howling Cow and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Warwick Arden, and will make its debut at the N.C. State Fair Oct. 17-27. There, the NC State Food Science Club will serve up 4,000 gallons of ice cream, including Caramel Mocha Latte to attendees looking for a sweet treat.

With a creamy coffee ice cream base, swirls of rich caramel and large fudgy, chocolate chunks, Caramel Mocha Latte is sure to be a hit for ice cream fans around the state. It is one of only three named flavors produced by Howling Cow, including WolfTracks (Chancellor’s Choice) and Tuffy’s Toffee (College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Dean’s Choice).

“This collaboration with Provost Arden has been in the works for more than a year, and we’re very excited for our new ice cream to debut,” said Carl Hollifield, director of NC State’s Dairy Enterprise System. “This is a great flavor that people will enjoy for a long time.”

Caramel Mocha Latte will replace the previous Provost’s Pick, Coco Choco Cafe. The toasted coconut could no longer be sourced after the COVID-19 pandemic. Without coconut, Caramel Mocha Latte is something that even more people can enjoy, since it does not contain any tree nuts. The ingredients in this new flavor are also more readily sourced, therefore making production much easier. 

In addition to the N.C. State Fair, all other locations serving Howling Cow will carry Caramel Mocha Latte, including Talley Market in Talley Student Union, and the Howling Cow Dairy Education Center and Creamery.

Hollifield, along with fellow dairy processing expert Gary Cartwright, helped make the coffee flavor in Caramel Mocha Latte truly outstanding. The two received support from NC State’s Chancellor’s Innovation Fund out of the Office of Research Commercialization after discovering a way to convert coffee beans into a direct food additive.

“The coffee used in this ice cream is part of a licensed NC State technology that came out of the dairy plant, and uses micro-ground coffee beans instead of a coffee flavoring or extract,” said Hollifield. “We get to bypass the brewing process, and still have a great coffee flavor.”

Proceeds from each scoop of Caramel Mocha Latte sold at the N.C. State Fair and other places serving Howling Cow will directly benefit NC State’s Dairy Enterprise System, a farm-to-fork dairy foods program within the College of Agriculture and Life Science and the Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences. It is a self-funded academic program that supports teaching, research and extension from the sale of Howling Cow milk and ice cream products.

More than 70 NC State students across all colleges are employed by the Dairy Enterprise System, and faculty members can use the university’s Lake Wheeler Dairy Farm and processing plant for teaching and research.

So how will Caramel Mocha Latte make its way to the taste buds of thousands of Howling Cow fans? The cows at the dairy farm produce the milk for Howling Cow ice cream, and the raw milk is brought to Schaub Hall for pasteurization. Next, the ice cream mix with the Caramel Mocha Latte coffee base is created and frozen, then a swirl of caramel and chunks of chocolate are added. Finally, the ice cream is packaged into three-gallon tubs and sent to various destinations, including the N.C. State Fair.

From the farm to the fair, Caramel Mocha Latte, the Provost’s Pick, is NC State through and through. And it’s sure to be a howling success.

This post was originally published in Provost's Office News.