About a week ago, I posted a video on TikTok sharing how I eat my vanilla ice cream, & yes- I titled it you’re eating your vanilla ice cream wrong. It’s kind of an aggressive title, & obviously you can eat your vanilla ice cream however you want, but I promise you- this way is most definitely better.

SO ANYWAYS, when I posted that TikTok, apparently my sound went viral on the app. I had no idea, until someone sent me this article on Buzzfeed featuring “a strange ice cream hack that people are calling life changing on TikTok”.

MY ICE CREAM HACK. Now now, don’t get me wrong- I am so stoked for the girl who went viral using my audio. Like honestly, genuinely stoked for her, but I am not amused with Buzzfeed not sharing my original video. A little… *salty*? Sure- because this isn’t just my personal ice cream preference, this is a family HEIRLOOM. Let me explain…

Olive Oil in ice cream is actually not a new concept, I am not peeing on this concept like a dog marking it’s territory, lotsa place do it now. BUT 10 YEARS AGO, they did not & 10 years ago is when my Grandfather started eating his ice cream with olive oil & sea salt.

My Grandfather was a BOSS, an inspiration, an entrepreneur. I wrote a whole post about this amazing man here or you can just google Edward Stolman. He has more google results than I do probably & that’s impressive, considering he is not of the “internet age”.

I could sing his praises all day, but I will *try* to make this short & to the point…

♥ in the 80’s, Ed Stolman & his cousin came across a chocolate dipped ice cream bar in Chicago. It was being made in the back of a candy shop. Ed loved it, bought the concept from the man who created it, & took this ice cream bar world wide. It is now known as the Dove Bar.

♥ he absolutely LOVED ICE CREAM. Like, obsessed. It was his favorite thing in the world, next to olive oil… & his grandkids.

♥ he did a lot of other entrepreneurial businesses in between, but when he “retired” he moved to Glen Ellen, Sonoma. He was obsessed with Italy, so he built a stunning Italian home out there complete with an OLIVE TREE ORCHARD.

♥ He brought in hundreds of olive tree saplings from Italy.

♥ TO RECAP: he loved ice cream, Italy, & now was passionate about olive oil. 

♥ so, in retirement,  when he should be straight chilling- he created a business called THE OLIVE PRESS. It was a small storefront in Sonoma that created the most bomb olive oil. The small business grew, he won tons of awards for his olive oil, the small business became a big business. This is the exact award winning olive oil made from the olives on his land, in case you want a bottle.

♥ BUT- there was a missing link in his olive oil business & that was ICE CREAM. He put olive oil on everything, including his vanilla ice cream. EVERY SINGLE NIGHT the man would have one scoop of vanilla ice cream topped with his award winning Lunigiana olive oil (made from the trees on his land, straight from Italy) & a sprinkle of sea salt. If we were in town or he was feeling fancy, he’d add some hot fudge. For years, we all at his special olive oil ice cream at his house. I will never forget the feeling of sitting in his kitchen eating a scoop of olive oil ice cream with him. It was dreamy, it was magical, & I miss it so much.

♥ Towards the end of his life, he was in the process of making his olive oil ice cream a product at the Olive Press & even something he wanted to package up and sell worldwide. Just like he did with the Dove Bar. He unfortunately passed away before he could make that last & final dream a reality, but IT LIVES ON IN ME & this story!!!

♥ & of course, at his funeral, we most definitely served everyone vanilla ice cream with olive oil, sea salt, and fudge in remembrance of our dear Eddie (we never called him Grandpa, he hated that!).