Why does ice cream taste better at the end of the dish... then prior?

You probably are getting more intense flavor near the end of the bowl as the ice cream warms up slightly. Cold deadens the sensation of the taste buds on your tongue, so flavors are muted when the ice cream is very cold. As the ice cream warms and softens, it doesn't deaden your tongue as much so the flavors come through more strongly.

Yeah. All of those things. But it is only true of good ice cream. Which is getting harder to find. With Breyer's you have to get the Ice Cream products while dodging the Frozen Dairy Dessert products. And this is not very intuitive. Strawberry is still okay while Peach is like sugar and gum with no ice cream goodness at all. But I will say this for it, you would put it down faster. But then, why eat the ice cream in the first place?

I don't think there is such increase in taste.

Taste is subjective to who is tasting. You may chocolate and I like vanilla.

It could be the mixture of melted ice cream and soft ice cream compared to when it is hard when just taken out of the freezer.

It could be that our sense of taste is numbed when its too cold when ice cream is hard and really frozen.

It is probably because by that time it has come up to room temperature and that makes it taste different, possibly not better though. That would be up to peoples opinions

H-man

It is melted more at the end which numbs the mouth with the lesser coldness so you taste it more'

i disagree completely with that. for me, the first bite is the absolute BEST!!!

I think it's because its more soft and melty.