Midwest tri-color ice cream
Red, yellow and blue ice creams swirled together in one scoop, with flavors that change from maker to maker.
Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs. What the badge means
Midwest tri-color is three ice creams, red, yellow and blue, swirled together in one scoop. It is hard to find. Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs, mostly in Michigan and a few other Midwest places.
This page covers how it tastes, where it comes from, how to make Midwest tri-color ice cream at home, what to serve with it, how common it is and its nutrition.
What Midwest tri-color tastes like
Midwest tri-color, often called Superman, is red, yellow and blue ice cream swirled together in one scoop. The colors stay the same from shop to shop. The flavors do not. Each maker picks their own.
The red is usually cherry or strawberry. The yellow is usually vanilla or lemon. The blue is blue moon, the sweet, hard-to-pin-down flavor that gives the scoop its brightest stripe. In one spoonful you might get tart fruit, plain cream and something like marshmallow or almond all at once. The texture is smooth, regular ice cream. The fun is in the bands of color and the way the three flavors meet where they touch.
Where Midwest tri-color comes from
Who made it first is disputed. WDET, Detroit public radio, found the earliest mention of the three-flavor ice cream under its popular name in a 1941 newspaper ad from Lancaster, Wisconsin. The ad was for a 25-cent pint sold as a three-color brick with whole nut meats.
A different tale also gets told. The story goes that a Detroit brewery invented it during Prohibition. WDET reports that the maker repeating this story called it hearsay. A spokesperson for the brewery’s current owner said they do not know.
WDET also notes how loose the recipe has always been. The red can be cherry, strawberry soda flavor or cotton candy. The yellow can be vanilla, lemon or banana. The blue is usually blue moon.
How to make Midwest tri-color at home
Use a Philadelphia base, which has no eggs. The Base Builder sets that style up for you and sizes it to your machine. A no-churn base made with condensed milk and whipped cream also works. The Base Builder gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.
Make three small batches: one red (cherry or strawberry), one yellow (vanilla or lemon) and one blue (blue moon). Churn each batch separately. If you fold fruit pieces into a color, add them at the end of churning. Factories add pieces when the ice cream leaves the freezer at about the softness of soft serve, and home cooks follow the same timing.
To assemble, pack spoonfuls of the three colors side by side in your container. Then swirl once with a knife. Stop there, or the colors turn muddy. If you already have a recipe you like, the Recipe Scaler resizes it to your machine.
Base formula
Open the Base Builder: Philadelphia (no eggs)
Other styles that suit it: No-churn (condensed milk and whipped cream)
The Base Builder gives a base formula built on standard food-science ranges, not a tested recipe.
What to serve with Midwest tri-color
Serve Midwest tri-color in a sugar cone. The crisp, plain cone lets the three colors show and does not compete with the fruit and blue moon flavors. Sprinkles suit it too, since the scoop is already a party of color. Rainbow sprinkles add crunch and look right at home on top. For a group, scoop it into cones and set out a bowl of sprinkles so everyone can add their own.
- a sugar cone
- sprinkles
How common Midwest tri-color is
Our badge for Midwest tri-color is a waxing crescent, 2 of 5, labeled "Hard to find": look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs. The badge says how easy the flavor is to find, not how much people like it.
No survey we use lists this flavor by name, so the badge is our judgement alone. WDET, Detroit public radio, reports that it is mostly found in Michigan and a few other Midwest places. WDET also reports that many shops sell it under other names, because its popular name belongs to a comic character.
No survey we use lists this flavor by name, so its badge is our own judgement of how easy it is to find.
- Rare Rare enough that you would most likely make it at home.
- Hard to find Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs.
- Sometimes found Found in some shops and some grocery freezers.
- Easy to find Common in most grocery freezers.
- Classic A classic you can buy almost anywhere.
Nutrition, roughly
FoodData Central has no record for Midwest tri-color itself. The figures shown are for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich: 207 to 249 kcal per 100 grams. For regular vanilla, FoodData Central gives a 1/2 cup (66 grams) portion at about 137 kcal, 7.3 grams fat and 14 grams sugars. These are not figures for this flavor. Its mix-ins and sweeteners change the numbers.
Nutrition per 100 grams
| FoodData Central record | Calories | Fat | Saturated fat | Sugars | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice creams, vanilla FDC 167575 1/2 cup (66 g): about 137 kcal, 7.3 g fat | 207 kcal | 11 g | 6.79 g | 21.2 g | 3.5 g |
| Ice creams, vanilla, rich FDC 167573 | 249 kcal | 16.2 g | 10.30 g | 20.6 g | 3.5 g |
FoodData Central has no record for Midwest tri-color itself: these are the figures for a plain vanilla base, regular to rich. Mix-ins and sweeteners change them.
Questions people ask
What flavors are in Midwest tri-color ice cream?
It depends on the maker. The red is usually cherry or strawberry, the yellow vanilla or lemon, and the blue is blue moon. The colors stay the same while the flavors change from shop to shop.
Where can I find Midwest tri-color ice cream?
It is hard to find. WDET reports it is mostly found in Michigan and a few other Midwest places. Look for it in specialty shops and seasonal runs, sometimes under a different name.
How do I swirl the three colors without making them muddy?
Pack spoonfuls of the three colors side by side in your container, then swirl once with a knife. One pass keeps distinct bands of red, yellow and blue instead of blending them together.
Can I make Midwest tri-color without an ice cream machine?
Yes. A no-churn base made with condensed milk and whipped cream works. Make three small batches, one for each color, then pack them side by side and swirl once before freezing.
More flavors to try
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Regional and international
Blue moon ice cream
Bright sky blue, sweet and famously hard to name
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Regional and international
Spumoni ice cream
Layered pistachio, cherry and chocolate, often with candied fruit
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Regional and international
Dulce de leche ice cream
Tan milk caramel ice cream with a dulce de leche swirl
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Regional and international
Kulfi-style cardamom pistachio ice cream
Dense Indian-style frozen milk with cardamom, pistachio and saffron
Plan and make it with these
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Recipe Scaler and Converter
Ice cream recipe converter: cups to grams
Scale an ice cream recipe by a factor, a batch volume or your machine, and see every line in grams and cups.
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Scoop size chart
Ice cream scoop sizes and the disher number chart
The number stamped on an ice cream scoop tells you how many level scoopfuls fill one quart, so a #8 holds 4 fluid ounces (1/2 cup) and a #16 holds 2.
Sources
- CuriosiD: What is Superman ice cream? And where does it come from? WDET 101.9 FM, Detroit public radio
- Ice Cream Technology e-Book: Freezing/Whipping of Ice Cream H. Douglas Goff, University of Guelph
- Ice creams, vanilla (FDC 167575) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
- Ice creams, vanilla, rich (FDC 167573) U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Every data source the site uses is on the Sources page.