For Framingham real estate agent Amy Dwyer, sundaes are for Wednesdays.
She makes a residing serving to individuals make the largest purchase of their life, and now she’s serving to patrons with a extra pint-sized buy — utilizing her style buds.
Dwyer, a lifelong Massachusetts resident who has lived in Westborough for the final 4 years, was chosen from amongst 8,000 individuals all through the nation to eat 50 flavors of Ben & Jerry’s over the following 12 months as an ice cream taste analysis specialist for FinanceBuzz, an internet site with ideas and recommendation on making monetary selections.
Dwyer stated she’s being paid $1,000 to check the ice cream and evaluate it, plus a $500 reward card to pay for all of the ice cream she eats.
“Amy’s utility actually stood out as a result of her love of ice cream is central to so many features of her life, together with her enterprise, household traditions and even the automobile she drives,” stated Tracy Odell, vice chairman of content material at FinanceBuzz, in a press launch.
Dwyer is tasked with transcribing her ideas onto a Google type, ranking flavors from 1 to 10, and describing them to assist prospects resolve whether or not or to not spend their cash on it. Her opinions will later be revealed on-line subsequent 12 months on Financebuzz.com.
Dwyer has been an actual property agent for Keller Williams Boston MetroWest in Framingham for the final eight and a half years, and earlier than then she was a well being trainer in Worcester.
“Moderation is the important thing,” joked Dwyer from inside her actual property workplace in Framingham, melting in ice cream décor like tiny ice cream erasers, pins, indicators and a large, plastic ice cream cone lamp — which she discovered on the facet of the street.
In 2011, she even attended Ice Cream College in New Jersey the place she realized to make the creamy dessert (she additionally has a certificates and T-shirt to show it).
She nonetheless makes do-it-yourself ice cream and sorbet at this time utilizing high quality substances like Madagascar vanilla, and within the spring she makes use of recent strawberries for a strawberry lemonade sorbet, she stated.
She used to even personal a industrial ice cream maker value about $8,000 as a result of she needed to open her personal do-it-yourself ice cream enterprise. However she in the end determined in opposition to it, with the quantity of labor and startup prices she must put in, she stated.
Each summer time for the final decade, a household custom they name “Ice Cream Wednesday” consists of attempting out a brand new ice cream parlor each Wednesday. They use their very own 1 to five ranking scale. After they exhausted locations to strive in Massachusetts, they ventured additional beginning round 2015, stated Dwyer.
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Since then, her objective has been to strive ice cream from all 50 states — and she or he’s greater than midway there.
In her workplace, she has a map of the US with states she has eaten ice cream marked off with pastel ice cream push pins. Forty states are marked, together with Kansas, Oklahoma, Indiana, Wisconsin, Missouri, Montana, Idaho, Hawaii and Alaska.
In October, she’ll mark off New Mexico, she stated.
One in every of her favourite locations was Salt & Straw in Portland, Oregon, which carries distinctive flavors like maple and bacon streusel. At an ice cream store in Fargo, North Dakota, Dwyer purchased a pre-made sundae from a mason jar. In Austin, Texas, at Amy’s Ice Lotions, Dwyer loved do-it-yourself vanilla ice cream with Mexican sizzling fudge that gave it a daring taste, she stated.
Within the Midwest, like Minnesota, frozen custard tends to be well-liked, she stated.
She has additionally traveled outdoors the nation and tried ice cream in locations like Aruba and Eire (Murphy’s Ice Cream is hottest, she stated).
“Each location has a narrative,” she stated.
Dwyer’s favourite taste of ice cream could be found at Sundae School Ice Cream in Dennis Port, the place it presents a black raspberry Oreo taste sundae-style, with sizzling fudge, whipped cream and a cherry.
One taste she doesn’t like — peanut butter.
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Two years in the past, she purchased her dream automobile — a blue, 1971 VW bug convertible — with a self-importance license plate studying “SNDE” to take for “sundae” drives.
Even the catchphrase for Dwyer’s actual property enterprise is, “Giving You the Scoop on Actual Property,” and options pastel-painted properties with a pin drop icon resembling an ice cream cone.
By mixing ice cream with enterprise, she stated it breaks the ice and helps her discover speedy frequent floor with patrons and sellers. When she gathers analysis on the world a home is situated in, it consists of what close by ice cream store choices appear like and what’s well-liked.
“No one’s sad while you speak about ice cream,” she stated. “Even lactose-intolerant individuals can speak about sorbet or non-dairy choices.”
When the pandemic hit final 12 months, Dwyer put collectively about 20 ice cream care packages to ship to purchasers. Previous to that, she filmed movies for her enterprise revealing what actual property statistics look like for sure communities and the place you can even get ice cream (together with the most well-liked flavors).
Her public love for ice cream was how she found the ice cream-eating gig. When somebody on Fb tagged her with the alternative in June, she instantly utilized for the place. Just a few weeks later, she found she landed the job by way of e mail.
As a result of Dwyer has two canine — a golden retriever named Gus and a German shepherd named Kai — in addition they function taste-testers, for Ben & Jerry’s canine ice cream flavors.
Her final dream is to have her personal TV present the place she travels round in her bug throughout the U.S. visiting ice cream parlors — and giving some actual property perception on issues like common sale costs within the space and what a median house seems like.
How do you style take a look at 50 flavors of ice cream?
Each Wednesday, Dwyer tries a brand new taste of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. On Sept. 1, she tried its strawberry cheesecake taste. It doesn’t matter what taste, she eats it with a fork as a result of it is simpler to dig into, she stated.
She was afraid of the strawberry flavoring tasting too synthetic, however ended up loving the genuine style.
“It truly does style like cheesecake,” she stated. “That is truly exceeding my expectations.”
The earlier week’s taste was chocolate fudge brownie, which she tried after dropping off her daughter in school on the College of Wyoming. It was a becoming taste for an emotional journey, she stated, ranking the flavour a “6.”
Making an attempt ice cream together with her youngsters, now aged 16 and 18, has at all times been one thing for them to do collectively. Dwyer remembers someday in 2008 when she was juggling work with learning for a grasp’s diploma. Her youngsters have been younger and protracted about getting ice cream one evening. She finally agreed, and remembers her daughter later saying that evening how she wished they may have ice cream each Wednesday.
It is a want that is come true each Wednesday since then.
Lauren Younger writes about enterprise and popular culture. Attain her at 774-804-1499 or lyoung@wickedlocal.com. Observe her on Twitter @laurenwhy__.
