Feeling Schweddy? An Ode to Schweddy Balls

December 20, 2016

Oh, Those Delicious Balls

If you're anything like us, sometimes you'll find yourself daydreaming about Pete Schweddy. Our mouths start watering, we close our eyes, and we lean back in our chairs, gripping our spoon with renewed intensity…and that's when the memories really kick in—all that creamy vanilla ice cream with just a hint of rum, the countless fudge-covered rum and malt balls. Oh, those delicious balls.

Even now, more than four years after the flavor's limited holiday-season run, no one can resist our Schweddy Balls.

 

A Family Secret

This flavor had been on our wish list ever since that famous Saturday Night Live sketch first aired back in 1998. "Delicious Dish" starred Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon as the ultra-soothing, if not quite coma-inducing hosts of a hilariously boring fake NPR cooking show. Alec Baldwin played Pete Schweddy, their special culinary guest. Pete was there to talk about his holiday-themed bakery, Season's Eatings, but mostly he wanted to show the hosts his balls: "popcorn balls, cheese balls, rum balls, you name it." All made, he said, from a secret Schweddy family recipe.

As the ball-heavy dialogue grows more and more absurd, and the studio audience doubles over in hysterics, all three actors somehow manage to stay in character: voices just as smooth, faces cluelessly straight. These people have no idea that anything they're saying is provocative, suggestive, or the least bit humorous, which of course is why it works so well—and why it remains so memorable all these years later. (In February 2014, Rolling Stone ranked it the 20th greatest SNL skit of all time.)

 

Pete's Legacy

Our flavor ode to Schweddy Balls graced the earth for but a short while, and perhaps it was that fleeting, flashing brilliance that has led so many to remember the flavor so fondly. Gone, but nowhere near forgotten, as they say. After all, there really is nothing like a Schweddy ball.

Good times, good times.

It's unseemly, though, to spend so much time talking about ice cream and ignore the man who inspired it (although, full disclosure, we heard that he was a fan). Surely a man of Pete Schweddy's talents would have grown restless concocting balls only for the holidays. Perhaps Pete eventually came out with a line of meatballs, Italian and Swedish. Or maybe, thanks to the publicity resulting from his Delicious Dish appearance, he decided to offer his beautiful balls to eager customers all year long. Admit it: Your Valentine's Day would have been even more romantic if you had whipped out a box (or a pint) of tender and delicate Schweddy Balls.

Have you started daydreaming again?

Shhh. Don't answer. The look on your face says it all.