Canton Creamery Cookie Dough M&M

Who is Canton Creamery? Well, for starters, it's Canton, CT, not Canton, MA, and this is their website (which could use a bit of work to be honest). They are available at Big Y stores, which is where I found me a pint of....

Canton Creamery Cookie Dough M&M Ice Cream

(no description on pint or website)

Happy (Belated) National Ice Cream Day

I first mentioned Flannel Cow Creamery back in July 2024 after a glowing recommendation from my coworker. Since then, it has become our favorite place to get ice cream (despite being a solid 45+ minutes from home). 

Well, it was National Ice Cream Day yesterday, so we headed out to the momentarily unbusy Flannel Cow and tried...

Flannel Cow Triple Threat Ice Cream

chocolate ice cream with brownie bits and chocolate chips

What's your favorite Cookie Monster Ice Cream?

I do mean to sprinkle in local ice cream from time to time when I think the flavor (or the visuals) are good enough to be interesting, but then a few weeks will pass and that local ice cream just melts away.... However, I was looking over the pictures from our Friday night ice cream and I was surprised how well they turned out.

Rota Spring Farm Cookie Monster Ice Cream

vanilla ice cream loaded with Oreos and swirled with blue icing

Best Milkshake that I've had in a long time

We were short on time and needed a place to hang out for an hour. I really wasnt expecting to have the best milkshake that I've had in a long time. Other places need to take notes from Tasty's Bagels because this is how you make a proper...

Cookies & Cream Milkshake

Visiting Gelato Fiasco

We did it, we finally made it to Gelato Fiasco after all these years! It's been six years since my last GF review, and to make up for that, we visited GF Tuesday night on our way up through Maine, and then Wednesday night on our way back home. Let's see if this stuff is even better in person (but come on, you know it will be).

Gelato Fiasco

(Flagship Store in Brunswick)

Chocolate Cookie Monster Ice Cream

Continuing our trend of trying to get more local cream in to our diets as we wander about, we were out west when we decided to give Cha's Ice Cream and Grill a try. I was still very much in a black raspberry mood, but since they didn't have any, I decided to try:

Chocolate Cookie Monster Ice Cream

chocolate ice cream with cookie dough and a "cookie swirl"

It's a decent looking cone even though the scoops are on the smaller side.

Now, does that look like a cookie swirl or just a regular fudge sauce swirl? It's not what I expected, but it's thin nature does do a good job of adding a lot of chocolaty flavor. 

The cookie dough is fine, but I can't really taste it over all the chocolate.

And the unfortunate worst part (besides it being in a non-sugar cone), is that this ice cream was quite icy. I'm not sure what the exact issue is, but the ice cream wasn't super dense and I hit way too many ice crystals along my snackable journey.

Maybe this was just a fluke with this flavor? I wish I could say yes, but my wife tried their pumpkin and blueberry flavors and those two were icy. Maybe we picked their 3 least popular flavors, but I think this might be a production issue more than anything.

We definitely won't be back to Cha's anytime soon.

PB Graham^2 from Outside the Cone

So I tried the other free sample that Outside the Cone sent over and yeah, it's kind of ridiculous.

Outside the Cone PB Graham^2 

graham cracker base with house made graham cracker crumbles
and house made chocolate peanut butter chunks.

Oatmeal Cookie Chunk from Outside the Cone

On September 9th, 2019, Outside the Cone opened it's doors in Wyndhurst, Virginia. On January 19th, 2020, they sent me a direct message on instagram. Kyle asked me if I would be willing to try their version of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk. That's right, it's meant to replicate that badly missed Ben & Jerry's (archived here). Did I say yes? Ofcourse!

Outside the Cone Oatmeal Cookie Chunk Ice Cream

(cinnamon ice cream with oatmeal cookie chunks and chocolate chunks)

Beckon Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I like to set up my reviews of something new with a bit of background info, but I want to just jump ahead and say I don't like this ice cream. When you only have a few pints in your line up, why risk making one of them too salty? Ok, I'm really just mad at myself for not noticing the "sea salt" in the flavor name. Keep in mind that, in general, salty things tend to taste extra salty to me.

Beckon Sea Salt Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

"subtly" salted vanilla base with dark chocolate chips

Wilcox's Premium Ice Cream

Have you ever had Wilcox ice cream? Well, unless you live in Vermont, probably not. According to the label, the Wilcow family has been making ice cream since 1928 with a simple recipe using Vermont milk. (more info on their website). Anyway, we were in Vermont and you all know I love checking out the local freezer aisle. I didn't want to leave empty handed so...

Wilcox Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Uhlman's Pumpkin Oreo Ice Cream

Hey, sorry for the quietness, it's just busy in life but slow in the ice cream aisle. I still have the magnum tubs and some pb world to clear out of the work fridge before I buy anything else... well, unless I decide to make one final trip to Uhlman's before they close for the season. See, my fellow Massachusetts people don't believe much in outdoor ice cream in the cooler months so most places close in Sept/Oct and don't reopen until March/April. I know, it's sad. It was basically empty there when I plopped down five bucks and picked up....

Uhlman's Pumpkin Oreo Ice Cream

(includes pumpkin puree, pumpkin pies spices, and chopped Oreos)

Was it good? Ofcourse. I definitely agree with calling it Oreo and not cookies & cream because there's no little wafer bits everywhere. I also expected it to be a bit more orange though I get that mixing pumpkin with milk and cream will make it less orange. It's just that I wasn't sure if they could have added more pumpkin flavor, or if the Oreos were just balancing out the flavor profile. It was a fun flavor, but I expected PUMPKIN oreo, not pumpkin Oreo. You know what I'm saying?

For the record, Uhlman's has actual cows behind their place. This one on the right looked like they were waiting for me to pet them. If you want to know more about them, click here.

Black Raspberry Oreo Ice Cream @ Uhlman's

Happy Friday everyone! Question: have you ever had Black Raspberry Oreo ice cream? I started thinking about it and realized that I'm not sure I have. That seems silly considering how much I enjoy both Black Raspberry and Oreo ice creams. Why have I not tried this sooner?

Uhlman's Black Raspberry Oreo Ice Cream

Crescent Ridge vs Trombetta's Farm

When you have the same flavor from two different local places, you can't help but compare the two right? Case in point is Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar vs Trombetta's Farm. You can drive to both places for a cup or cone of ice cream, but you can also take a freshly scooped quart home from Trombetta's and I can sometimes find Crescent Ridge in my local freezer aisle.

Crescent Ridge Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

"small batch - locally made"

Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Pie

I'm pretty sure that a lot of you have heard me profess my love for ice cream cake. It's a magical thing from the random varieties  to your standard version filled with a layer of chocolate crunchies. I don't cover these types of treats a lot (because I rarely see a "new" one around), but it seems these things are always called cakes, not pies. The only "pie" I've reviewed was the cookie dough one my wife brought home from Cold Stone way back in 2011.

Well this was a present from my in-laws yesterday. It's a Pumpkin Ice Cream Pie from New City Microcreamery in Hudson, MA. It's Pumpkin Pie ice cream, whipped cream, caramel drizzle, and something they call a "cone-cookie crust". I didn't have the description when I first dug in, so I couldn't quite place the flavor of the crust at first, but once I was told it had to do with waffle cones then it all made sense. It's unique though I wish that they mixed more little bits with all the big bits to make a crust that was a bit more traditional.

Did I mention that NCMC uses liquid nitrogen in their ice cream making process? I should stop by and see it for myself because I dont know if you are allowed to eat it freshly frozen or if you have to wait until after it spends two hours in the freezer. I bring this up because I had no idea how long to let the pie (and then the slices) temper. The softer the slice got, the more the pumpkin spices came alive. With less tempering, the ice cream was quite dense and also not as flavorful.

They also had an eggnog version (no thanks), a pecan version (not safe to bring home), and an apple version that had some kind of crumb top. Which one would you have brought home? Or for a more general question, have you had ice cream made with liquid nitrogen?

P.S. I hope everyone had a nice Christmas yesterday.

Maple Valley Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

So my nephew is a big fan of having ice cream with his cake and since his mom is a fan of both local and all natural stuff, sometimes we wind up having something from Maple Valley Creamery with our cake. I've always enjoyed it and I think it's time we do an official review of this local company based in Hadley, Massachusetts. What should I pick? Well, I've got yet another nasty headache today and headache time calls for chocolate time. Let's dig in to....

Maple Valley Creamery Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream

Charlie's Sorbet Co. (formerly Artisanal Sorbets)

2017 Update: Artisanal Sorbets has become Charlie's Sorbet Co. New packaging should be out soon. It looks like Chocolate has become Midnight Chocolate and Passion Fruit is now Passion Fruit Lovin'. There is also a Double Coconut flavor.


Like so many other purveyors of small batch frozen delights, Artisanal Sorbets is based out of New York City.  Their tag is "all natural, gluten free, dairy free, vegan". Since I'm rarely in NYC, the owner was nice enough to send over a pair of free samples to try.

Artisanal Sorbets - Chocolate Sorbet & Passion Fruit Sorbet

Nick visits NYC : Day 2

[By Nick] With Day 1 recapped, time for Day 2 which was actually this past Monday. You see, Sam Mason posted multiple photos of mutilated peeps on instagram Saturday that were destined for an OddFellows Easter flavor. Well trying to get people to go to NYC with me last minute on Easter is a tough task. So if they had any left, I was going to go down Monday so I can try it. Thankfully, there was still some leftover and I knew I had to had it.

OddFellows x2, Coolhaus, and Shake Shack (all in one day)

Nick visits NYC : Day 1

[By Nick] ‎I recently was down in NYC, the past two Mondays to be specific. While I was there, I made sure to make the most out of my time and hit up as many ice cream spots as possible. I'm going to go in order from each day to keep me sane.

Big Gay Ice Cream, OddFellows, & Milkmade (all in one day)

Southern Craft Creamery Salty Caramel Ice Cream

[By CT] Hey there, On Second Scoop readers. I'm CT from the Nerd Lunch blog and podcast. I live in Tallahassee, Florida and recently discovered a local ice cream company that I thought I'd try for Dubba. I first heard about this in 850 Business Magazine that did a story about the company. Now in the interest of full disclosure, I actually work for the company that produces that magazine, but still... not every article grabs my attention like this one did.

The ice cream is manufactured in Marianna, Florida which is about an hour away from where I live. They profess to using only local ingredients including milk right from their own farm. In fact, the blurb on the carton sums it up best:

"Our ice cream is handcrafted using milk from our farm, local ingredients, and a passion for creating flavors that showcase those ingredients. In addition to the creamery, we own and operate a dairy farm where we provide our cows with special attention and care. In return, they provide us with delicious, high-quality milk for our ice cream. Thank you for sharing our passion for local farms and handcrafted ice cream. Want to learn more? Follow us at facebook.com/SouthernCraftCreamery"

Bart's Homemade Deep Purple Cow Ice Cream Review

Have you ever had Bart's? No? Didn't think so, not unless you live in the Massachusetts area. Apparently Bart's is "Massachusett's finest homemade super premium ice cream since 1976". Funny, I've lived here a long time and only just now have I finally had a pint of Bart's. I won't get into too many details since they are pretty localized, but basically Bart's super premium pints and Snow's Half Gallons come from the same factory in Greenfield, MA and they've been doing so for quite some time.

Deep Purple Cow? Since Purple Cow is black raspberry and chocolate chips, Deep Purple Cow is black raspberry with white and dark chocolate chips. As a lover of black raspberry ice cream, I feel a bit uninformed and needed to do a quick google search about this.... Funny, all my search results are for Emack & Bolio's Deep Purple Cow flavor and no one else seems to make it.