Creating and maintaining this blog has multiple pleasures. There are the wheelbarrows full of cash, the private jets and the vegan groupies that throw themselves at us where ever we go of course.  But money and a decadent lifestyle come in a distant second place to the thrill of learning that somebody we admire turns out to be a DFVer.

We recently had one of those moments when Justin Cline of Full Tilt Ice Cream sent us a message saying “I like what you do”. That made our day ’cause we really like what his family is doing too.   If you think I’m sucking up in order to get free ice cream, check out our frequent buyer card.

As you can see, it already has enough punches to warrant free cones for the whole family. My goal is to use that sucker until it’s so perforated it looks like it’s taken a round at point blank range from a Restructuring Conference Call. Then we’re gonna party on Justin’s dime.

But isn’t about us, it’s about Full Tilt Ice Cream.  A boat builder by trade, Justin was looking for for something to keep himself occupied and the benjamin’s flowing during that business’s summer downtime.  Justin and his wife Amy are smart, they asked themselves “what is one thing says ‘summer’ more than anything else?”   Their answer: ICE CREAM…….(is gonna save the day again)!!!!

That was in 2007, fast forward to 2013 and FT has grown from a single location in Seattle’s White Center neighborhood to 4 locations across the city and a presence in the local retail grocery scene (more on that in a second).    In keeping with the name, all the FT stores have a fine selection of pinball machines except the U District location, which is the size of a shoebox.

Beyond selling ice cream and taking peoples’ quarters, Full Tilt is one of those awesome small businesses that takes its role in the local community seriously and as such they have created a family friendly venue that offers music, game nights & other events and are quick to support others’ causes.  They even co-sponsor an annual Pine Wood Derby in the White Center Community.  All of this positive energy has caught the eye of the local bigwigs with FT being tasked with providing Sub Pop(sicles) for the label’s 25th Anniversary Party and a yet another store planned, this time in the corporate HQ of an evil empire based in Redmond.

Since their humble beginnings FT has always offered vegan flavors.  Each of the FT stores usually has at 4 vegan choices on hand.  We even ran across a burger joint on Vashon Island selling FT products and they had 4 vegan flavors to choose from.  Unfortunately, that was not true for FT in your local grocery store…..until now.

If you’re PacNW vegan or vegan friendly, you are in luck.  Starting this week Whole Foods Markets from Vancouver B.C. south through Oregon will start carrying six, count ’em 6 I mean 7, count’em 7 (’cause I obviously can’t) flavors of vegan Full Tilt Ice Cream.   They are, in no particular order:

Mayan Chocolate
Chocolate Fudge Brownie Swirl
Almond Bliss
Hemp Cookie Dough
Hemp Vanilla Bean
Mango Chili
Chocolate Orange Chip

I would love to tell you about how great all the flavors are, but alas I can’t because I haven’t tasted them yet.   With Whole Foods doubling their original order, it turns that delivering product to a paying customer is more important than plying cheap ass bloggers like me with samples for free. I guess I can’t blame him for that.

See, I wasn’t lying when I told you I wasn’t writing this just for the free ice cream. Instead I now have to actually go buy some Full Tilt for the shake recipe I’m working on for my new gig at PlanetVegan (and get a pic of the snazzy new packaging. I told you Justin was smart, he got himself some publicity for Full Tilt and now I’m spending (more) money there too.  Well played sir, well played.

Update: Turns out there ARE samples for us to taste.  The DFV R & D lab will be testing these all weekend and we’ll be back with a full report early next week.