1 Have you tried their mail-order store?  They only seem to sell in six-packs, but you might be able to freeze the extras for a later date...

2

As I mentioned in the post, I'm aware that there are several answers here. This was not a post where I was looking for advice, or solutions. This was a post where I felt like ranting.

I just realized I've got a "rant" category. I think I better put it in there.

3 Every thanksgiving, my family has an egg nog tasting event. This year, there were 13 varieties, one of which was a soy based egg nog (actually, it just says "nog" on the box, presumably because there's nothing even resembling egg in it). When asked why on earth they bought it, a family member responded "Something's gotta lose, right?" Sure enough, it got voted worst nog of the year. It didn't even look right. It had a greenish sort of tint, and a vicious aftertaste. Luckily, we had 12 other alternatives.

4 I didn't mean to offer advice.  In fact, I was actually sorta hoping that you'd tried the mail-order (even though you obviously didn't use it this time), and could comment on its quality.  I had some of that brand dip at an out-of-state relative's house a while back, and your post brought back mouth-watering memories...

5 I can't imagine how you could ship sour cream from the east coast to the west coast. If you freeze it, you'll ruin it. But if it gets too warm, it'll spoil. Just doesn't seem possible unless you have your own fleet of refrigerated delivery trucks, which I'm sure they don't.

6

From their mailorder store page: Each six-pack is shipped in a styrofoam lined container with ice.

 They only do overnight delivery, and you can also get another ice-pack (for $1.00, what a deal!) for shipping purposes.  At least in the winter, you've got a better chance of the stuff staying colder.  I'm kinda surprised they don't do dry ice shipping...

7

Dry ice would freeze the dip. You can't freeze sour cream; it'll wreck it.

If they're shipping ice along with the dip, by overnight delivery, it's going to be heavy and cost a fortune.

8

Well, I started to place an order, but the shipping charges to Virginia for a single six-pack would be over $38 dollars, almost 3 times the cost of the food itself. 

I would imagine that  sealed ice pack could keep an insulated package cool, but above freezing, for one day of shipping (much like the coolers my family used on our camping trips, back in the old days).  However, my fond memories of Heluva Good dips aren't quite worth the cost to test it out.

9

Now you've gotten me curious. So I tried it, too.

Six packages of dip were $13.29. Overnight shipping was $38.46. It isn't heluvaTHATgood.

10

You can't freeze sour cream; it'll wreck it.

Oh.  Didn't know.  Ducks aren't big on sour cream.  Except in mashed potatoes with garlic.  Then, it's yummy.

11

Wonderduck, sour cream is a colloid, just as mayonaise is. It's a mixture of fat soluble things and water soluble things, where the overt texture comes from the fact that the water stuff is divided into really tiny bubbles, embedded in the matrix of fat stuff.

If you freeze it and thaw it, the structure of the colloid is changed. The freezing process turns the microspheres of water into sharp crystals, and when it all thaws, a lot of the water spheres will merge together.

It isn't poisonous, or anything like that. It just isn't the same any longer.

12

Well, or maybe it's an emulsion of fat droplets in water. The point remains: the texture comes from the fact that there are lots of tiny droplets of something suspended in the other thing. Freezing and thawing results in a lot fewer droplets, which are larger, and the fundamental texture won't be the same.

13

Gee, thanks for the tip.  I'm going to have to stop at Safeway to get some Onion Dip right away.  Metamucil isn't helping...

 

 

14

Norm, White Castle sliders will fix those problems for you.