I love Fall.  Always have.  Sweaters, leaves, spiced cider.  But, I must admit, being the proprietor of an ice cream shop has lent a certain bitterness to the falling leaves. The bustle of summer is gone, no more lines for gelato, no more families gathering on the benches in front of the store, no more kids running up and down the street (at all hours I might add!) with chocolate ice cream remnants on their lips.  The Trolley too trades in its summer duds for the accoutrement of Fall.  The good news of course, is that gelato tastes just as good in December as it does in July–and we’re here for you with the same committment to quality that we had all summer long.  The even better news, however, is that as the seasons change, the Trolley changes with them.  

To highlight this fact we are rolling out our “Free Novo Coffee and Red Trolley Tea for a Whole Week” promotion (I just made that up.  I probably should have come up with something more clever like “Get Your Rush on Us” or “Come For Coffee Without Coughin’ Up Any Coin (oh, that’s my fave!) but I digress…).  That’s right, free.  From October 19th-23rd anyone who signs up for our newsletter, The Scoop, will receive a coupon for a week of free drinking.  Quite honestly, I couldn’t believe it when I heard it myself (the financial people promise me it won’t bankrupt us). 

“Wait” you may say “this sounds great, but I drink my coffee in the wee small hours of the morning and you don’t open until 11??!!”

Got that covered.  Starting the 19th of October The Red Trolley will be opening at 7am on weekdays, just in time for your first jolt of caffeine.

You already knew we had the best coffee (Novo) and now to top it off we have our own private label collection of whole leaf teas.  I’ll give you all the details in the next post.  Meanwhile, SIGN UP FOR THE NEWSLETTER, (www.theredtrolley.com) so that you too can save a week’s worth of coffee coinage.

I’ve tasted Georgia peaches. I’m pretty sure those Georgia peach growers hired a really good PR firm because anyone, anyone who pits (get it? pits?) a Georgia peach against a Colorado grown peach knows that nothing beats our peaches. Those of you that have tasted it know that nothing beats the Red Trolley’s Colorado peach sorbetto.

Last year we sourced our peaches just about as local as you can get (any local-er and they would have grown in the parking lot). They came from a peach tree on Vrain St. in the Highlands Neighborhood. This year, increased volume has led to an increased need; the lovely little peach tree on Vrain St. was no longer enough. We went looking for a Palisade Peach farm that could sufficiently fulfill our peach fix. Today, all our needs were met.

This morning we unloaded 800 (that’s right, eight hundred) pounds of beautiful Palisade peaches from the Talbott Family farm. The Talbotts have been growing peaches for 5 generations—from what I’ve tasted today they clearly know how to grow a delicious peach. The Red Trolley is buzzing with the sounds and smells of fresh peach everything from gelatos, sorbettos and ice creams to jams and cobblers.

Summer is not over yet, head on over to the Trolley and get some, while the getting’s good!

Had an interesting experience last week when someone came into the store and wanted to sell us their ice cream and gelato base.  It was enticing because it would have cut our costs by about 1/3.  They claimed to be all natural, ALL NATURAL was plastered all over their marketing materials, they were local, and everything seemed perfect.  I did, however, ask to look at the ingredient list.

MONO AND DI-GLYCERIDES caught my attention as something that was not currently in our base.  As most of you know, we are dead serious about our commitment to serving real, all natural products in our store.  We are committed to real food because we believe that real food tastes better; its origins are easily traced, it has been minimally processed and it has NEVER been fiddled with in a lab. With this criterion Mono and Di-glycerides threw up a HUGE red flag.

Opinions on the internet ranged from “they are harmless” to “mono-diglycerides are nothing more than hydrogenated oils”.  The internet swims with opinions, fortunately, facts can be found if you dig hard enough.  The fact is that mono and diglycerides are manufactured at the molecular level in a lab.  They are used largely in highly processed and packaged foods to, among other things, “improve loaf volume, and create a smooth, soft crumb.”   Think Twinkies.

The most important fact is that my Grandmother would not have put mono and diglycerides in her ice cream and we’re not going to put it in ours.

Thanks and see you at the Trolley!