The other ice cream shop in Mystic…
We spent the afternoon at Mystic Seaport watching the celebrations and launch of the Mayflower II that was a very cool event. Maureen’s second cousin Matt Barnes was one of the lead shipwrights on the project and it was nice to see him acknowledged by so many of his colleagues.
After the inauguration we drove down to the center of town and parked at the home of a friend, which is walking distance to the Mystic Drawbridge. As we were headed to the drawbridge to check on the Mayflower II launch we ducked into the Mystic Sweet & Ice Cream Shoppe for something refreshing.
We were lucky that the owner of the Shoppe was in the store and Rita was a breathe of fresh air and clearly proud of her shop. Rita makes her ice cream and is using more natural dyes and flavoring in her concoctions. She serves all the basics and has her own special blends but their ice cream is anything but ordinary. Her ice cream has 16 percent butter fat which no doubt adds to the flavor… and my cholesterol, ha ha!
Maureen had a recent fave, mint chunk, which was very flavorful and tasty and no doubt influenced by seaweed food coloring. As predicted I had a coffee and chocolate milkshake but this was not your every day coffee ice cream. This was called “fresh brewed coffee” ice cream, made with real espresso coffee. And the shake was pure yum! Nice and thick and creamy. So good I went back for a try of their maple walnut ice cream that had real maple syrup in the ice cream. In addition Rita also makes gelato and Italian ice. She let me sample the lemon that also rich and flavorful.
To be fair the ice cream seemed a little pricey but Rita must be doing something right. She has been in the business 24 years!
The Connecticut Ice Cream Quest 