Five years and half way there!

After five years we are half way in our quest to sample “ice cream” in every town in Connecticut. I am referring to ice cream in quotes because as I have learned ice cream must have at least ten percent butterfat to be considered ice cream and some of these fine establishments have up to 18 percent butterfat…pure yum!!! If it has less than 10 percent this is referred to as dairy products. Soft Serve is an example of a dairy product.

At this point we have been all over the State but the only county we have completed is Middlesex, where we live. We have sampled “ice cream” in the four corners of the State and have had some real surprises.

There is quite a variety in Connecticut’s ice cream trade. For my mid-quest review I am rating the following: farms, creameries, dairy bars, commercial brands, soft serve, and milk shakes. And of course…the best of the best.

There are a number of farms that produce their own ice cream and other dairy products. We have sampled ice cream at at-least ten farms across Connecticut and the the best of the best is We-Lik-It in Pomfret up in the quiet corner on Connecticut. In addition to some rich, creamy ice cream We-Lik-It has some truly crazy flavors.

There are many creameries in Connecticut that make their own ice cream products on site and all have their unique spin on these delights. But one clearly stands out, Honeycone Cream Company on main street in the charming Connecticut River town Chester. Honeycone uses locally sourced, home grown additions that keep a certain purity to their concoctions.

Dairy bars are an interesting species of the ice cream shops. Usually just a take out window with no indoor seating but perhaps some picnic tables around the perimeter and they seem to offer both commercially available hard ice cream and soft serve. We have visited many of these dairy bars and the one that stands out to us is the Durham Dairy Serve that has a loyal following for this seasonal shop.

The best soft serve “ice cream” is found in Southington at Pat’s Main Street Ice Cream. The owner, Pat, has operated this place for years and has own delicious recipe for soft serve that clearly stands out.

Thimbleberries in the village of Stony Creek in Branford has made the best milkshake I have tried to date….and I have had a lot of milk shakes, some with hard ice cream and some with soft serve. What made Thimbleberries stand out was only in part the Gifford’s ice cream. The preparation that the owner put into these shakes was a creation in his own way. Sadly, Thimbleberries has changed hands.

There are several commercial products that are sold in shops across the State. The most consistent product we have sampled in multiple locations is Gifford’s from Skowhegan, Maine. We even visited a couple Farm Stands in Maine and enjoyed their ice cream and mini-golf at the home of Gifford’s.

The one place that stands out to us is a relatively new comer to the ice cream world in Connecticut and that is the Honeycone Craft Ice Cream Company in Chester. Owned and operated by a mother-daughter team, they bring a new level of creativity and pleasure to the ice cream scene. Each month they have five or six new novel flavors with locally grown ingredients. My favorite is pistachio with whole nuts and sea salt, followed by Garam Masala, and honey lavender. If you want to try something new and interesting head to Honeycone in Chester. You won’t be disappointed. They are clearly the Best of the Best and you might just run into me and Maureen.

We hope to get to the remaining 84 towns in the next five years. There is a good chance we may need your help as many of these remaining towns seems to be lacking not only ice cream shops but any kind of grocery or gas station that may sell any kind of dairy products. Please make suggestions and we hope to see you soon.