What Does Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G-major Taste Like?

Thomas Lauderdale first invited me to the Oregon Symphony in the mid-nineties. Watching him play the piano with the entire Symphony on stage is transfixing. My love for their music has continued to grow over the years. Watching Carlos Kalmar conduct is an artform of its own and he has brought an incredible array of music to the stage over the years. I never tire of hearing his stories about the musicians, the history of the music and why he’s brought different pieces together to create one of a kind experiences you’re only likely to find in Portland. And I’m so excited about the energy and ideas the new president, Scott Showalter is bringing to grow our Symphony, supporting the artists and continuing to push their presence in our community. I’ve heard them say many times that music has the ability to change lives. That’s why they work so hard to bring the Symphony out to the community with education and outreach that meets people where they are to enjoy the music together. They’ve led hundreds of workshops in our public schools. And they even perform in our state prisons. Today, they’ll be doing a free show for our community. The Oregon Symphony’s Waterfront Concert is the largest free concert in the state. And we are so honored to be included. We’ve been looking for ways to support the outreach that the Symphony does and were excited when they came up with the idea of serving ice cream at the free waterfront concert...with a twist. They were hoping we could serve a one of a kind Salt & Straw flavor to the approximately 20,000 expected attendees. My cousin Tyler comes up with our flavors. He got together with one of our ice cream makers, Rudy, to try to figure out how to create an ice cream flavor that reflects the symphony. This was quite the head scratcher. They decided the best way to accomplish this is to collaborate with members of the symphony in person, invite them into our ice cream kitchen, taste a variety of flavor combinations together and maybe, if we were lucky, play a little music for us. As they played for us, it was decided our flavor would be a culinary translation of Bach’s Cello Suite No. 1 in G-major. The musicians helped us figure out how to read this piece of music, interpret it into flavor, and use it as a recipe to create a delicious ice cream. The result is a velvety sweet, dark and smoky flavor. Much like the piece by Bach, the flavor tastes soothing and nostalgic as if it could calm you no matter how hard your day has been; it also has this drum beat that is spicy and earthy. The flavor is made of smooth and soothing notes of chocolate, ginger, carrots, brandy, and quite a few other nuanced flavors. We hope that those enjoying the concert on the water experience our ice cream flavor as a culinary translation of Bach's epic piece and we hope it is a delicious complement to this amazing event. The flavor is only available during the concert and all of the proceeds go to support the Oregon Symphony, so grab your blankets and join us for an evening of beautiful music and community. With gratitude, Founder and Head Ice Cream Scooper   [video width="568" height="320" mp4="http://saltandstraw.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/IMG_2230.mp4"][/video]