After meeting a friend for dinner at an excellent place I'll review next week, we looked in the same shopping strip for a good place to get dessert. The straightforward name of this establishment, along with its bright colors, lured us across the parking lot into its air conditioned doors. And MY, what a find!
When we walked into Flavors of Ice Cream, the first thing that struck me was the length of the ice cream bar. I didn't get an exact count at the store, but by my best estimate, they feature at least 48 flavors of ice cream, in addition to milkshakes, coffee drinks, and smoothies.
Flavors of Ice cream features a unique assortment of not only traditional american ingredients in decadent specialty flavors, but also 16 Indian flavors of ice cream and sorbet. I hesitate to assume these are "traditional" Indian ice cream flavors because I have never been to India, but I tasted several and they were truly a cultural experience. They were not as sweet as the more American fare, creamy and exotically spiced.
After tasting several flavors, my friend settled on the Mexican Hot Chocolate, I opted to have both the Mexican Hot Chocolate and the Calypso Crunch, inwardly crying that 3 scoops of ice cream after a large meal is just not physically consumable, much less wise. I consoled myself that I could taste my husband's selections which were the Kahlua Almond Fudge and the English Toffee n' Cream.
At the risk of going on for ages describing every flavor I sampled, I'll just tell you about my two selections.
The Mexican Hot Chocolate is a unique foodie experience worth having. I have heard several times that actual Mexican Hot Chocolate (the beverage) is an aphrodesiac, the cinnamon, cacao, and cayenne combining to get the blood pumping. That reputation would probably uphold with the ice cream form. Too often when people decide to add cinnamon to chocolate, especially in ice cream, they get too excited and it overpowers the palate, sometimes adding a gritty texture. Not so at Flavors of Ice Cream. The cinnamon is mild and empowering to the rich chocolate base, and the cayenne isn't so much a flavor as a sensation, slowly building warmth in the back of your throat into your core as you eat it, all at once compounding and being soothed by each bite of cold, creamy ice cream.
The Calypso Crunch is so decadent and unique, it resembles something I would put together if there were a combination candy store and ice cream bar that allowed you to select your own personalized combination of mix-ins from a large variety. It is a super chocolaty ice cream base, swirled with real peanut butter, and chock-full of chocolate covered, peanut butter filled pretzels. We're talking whole little pretzel nuggets, too- not tiny little mini-M&M sized bits of flavor.
When I stopped by for a few extra photos last night, my husband couldn't resist ordering a strawberry-banana smoothie. It wasn't a unique smoothie, but it was fresh and well made, not too sweet.
As far as price point, Flavors of Ice cream is perhaps a little on the pricey side, though it holds up next to similar specialty shops such as Marble Slab. For a little over $5 you can try two flavors in a medium cup, which when you consider the additional overhead involved in keeping a shop stocked with well over 40 unique flavors of ice cream, is very reasonable.
I will list some of the more interesting and unique selection from Flavors of Ice Cream below, but keep in mind it's not a full list by any stretch! (I took these descriptions directly from the tags on the case)
Banana Strawberry
Banana Ice cream loaded with a strawberry weave
Garbage Can
Vanilla ice cream with generous chunks of 7 brand name candy bars & granulated peanuts
Special Praline
Praline pecans & caramel swirled together in a vanilla ice cream
Carrot Cake
Carrot cake ice cream with fresh walnuts & a cream cheese frosting weave
Smurf
Blue Raspberry ice cream loaded with miniature marshmallows
Birthday cake
Rich cake ice cream with pieces of yellow cake, blue cotton candy flavored icing & rainbow sprinkles
Milky Way
Nougat ice cream swirled with caramel & chunks of Milky Way
Mexican Hot Chocolate
Mexican chocolate, a hint of cinnamon, mini marshmallows & a cayenne kick
Butterscotch Bomb
Butterscotch ice cream with butterscotch swirl, brownies, heath bars, cookies & peanut butter cups
Calypso Crunch
Rich chocolate ice cream with peanut butter filled chocolate covered pretzels & peanut butter weave
Key Lime Pie
Tart Key Lime flavored ice cream with pieces of pie crust
Maple Walnut
Coconut Pineapple
English Toffee 'n Cream
Toffee ice cream loaded with English Toffee candy bar pieces
Captain's Chocolate
Smooth triple rich chocolate
Strawberry Cheesecake
Cheesecake ice cream with chunks of real cheesecake and laced with strawberries
Chocolate Raspberry Truffle
A light raspberry flavored rich chocolate ice cream with raspberry ribbon & dark chocolate mini raspberry cups
Kahlua Almond Fudge
Kahlua flavored ice cream swirled with fudge and whole roasted almond
Spumoni
Swirled pistachio, chocolate & cherry ice cream with almonds & special blend of fruits
No comments:
Post a Comment