Sweets for Sweeties

Shop Name: Sweets for Sweeties

Location: Paradise, PA

Boo's Rating: 3 Screams

I was on my way to Philly the other day and I remembered that there is an ice cream shop on Rt. 30 on the way, so I figured I'd stop to check it out. Turns out, Sweets for Sweeties is primarily a candy shop. I'll have to go back sometime to try their homemade candies. In the meantime, I decided to sample their Moose Tracks, one of my favorite flavors. Turns out, they serve Turkey Hill ice cream, which I've already sampled and covered in my blog on Willow Valley at the Central Market. However, I hadn't sampled that flavor. It was okay. Not great, not terrible, just okay, hence the 3 screams.

Now for the exciting part: Soon I Scream You Scream will join the 21st Century with a real VIDEO BLOG!!! OMG!!! So exciting. My friend Mike and I went to the Jigger Shop in Mount Gretna and soon all the details will be available via vlog!!! Whoo-hoo!!!

Haagen Dazs

Shop Name: Haagen Dazs

Location: Park City Mall

Boo's Rating: 4 Screams

Ok, I think we all know that Haagen Dazs is pretty high standard ice cream, so it's no surprise they've got a high Boo Rating. I try not to go to the mall if I can help it, but my job pretty much requires that I end up there pretty often. I figured that since I had to be there, I might as well make the most of it. Turns out, there are at least 3 different ice cream establishments within the mall that I will now attempt to visit on my next few work-related outings to the mall.

The man at the Haagen Dazs counter was so friendly and offered me samples without making me feel guilty. I tried the coconut pineapple first and let me just tell you, it was DIVINE. I almost ordered it without any other samples, but then I saw- out of the corner of my eye- Brownie a la mode. Wow. I tasted a sample and fell in love. I ordered a kiddie size on a sugar cone. No, that's NOT a typo. I actually went for the sugar cone, even though it wasn't homemade and even though I have serious issues with sugar cones. (See my first blog entry for details.) Anyway, the ice cream was REALLY expensive- I paid $3.08 for a kiddie size scoop and it was definitely that. "Tiny" might be a better description for the size. Normally I don't even consider the cost, but I was a little blown away by the cost-to-scoop size ratio in this particular case. While I was considering what flavor to order, the very nice man behind the counter explained to me why Haagen Dazs is so delicious. He said that it has absolutely NO AIR in it. Almost ALL ice cream has air in it because it's continuously stirred while it freezes and the air in it is what makes the texture so great. Apparently, keeping the air out of the ice cream makes it really rich. They're not lying. Haagen Dazs ice cream is nothing if not rich.

Anyway, I have to say that my issue with sugar cones was proven right yet again. I was almost done eating the cone when a bit of brownie a la mode dripped out the bottom and onto my pretty pastel pink dress. DAMN! At least I was in the mall. I hopped over to CVS, bought one of those Tide-To-Go pens and tried my best to get it out. (Why they ever stopped making Shout Wipes, I'll never know. But that's another subject for another blog.) Fortunately for Haagen Dazs, their sugar cone was especially delicious, or the mishap might have upset me a little more than it did. The cone had a strong amaretto flavor to it that made it a little more sophisticated than your average sugar cone. Delicious!!!

Overall, Haagen Dazs earned 4 solid screams. Impressive.

The Brickyard

Shop Name: The Brickyard

Location: N. Prince Street

Boo's Rating: 1 Scream

I want to be very clear that the Brickyard is NOT an ice cream shop. It is a sports bar and restaurant that happens to have ice cream on its menu. Their menu boasts an "ice cream du jour" which is whatever the chef feels like making that day. My meal prior to dessert had been pretty much terrible, but I want to be clear that the meal is not what was judged in determining the number of "screams." I ordered the crab-stuffed flounder. The waitress had recommended it pretty highly and I'm not gonna lie, it sounded delicious. The flounder came with a mango salsa on top of it with sides of rice, green beans and salad. I was really looking forward to this meal, but something went wrong in the kitchen and they turned my flounder into fish jerky. Seriously. It was awful and completely inedible. The sides were good, but not good enough for me to not send the dish back to the kitchen. I was still hungry, so I decided to order dessert and that's when I saw the "ice cream du jour" on the menu. Without even asking the flavor, I said, "I'll take it." When it came, it looked fabulous. The waitress informed me that the flavor of the day was Kahlua-strawberry-cheesecake. Doesn't that sound AMAZING? It was SO not. I know I'm always saying that busy ice cream needs to be sufficiently busy. Well, the Brickyard took that philosophy WAY too far. There was hardly any ice cream in the ice cream. It was ALL strawberries and the occassional chunk of bland cheesecake. Aside from the main problem of actually being just a bowl of strawberries, the Brickyard had another issue. They didn't chop the strawberries very small, so when mixed into the "ice cream" (I put it in quotes because I think they're abusing the term), the strawberries just ended up frozen solid. Eating one was like biting into an ice cube. Not good. And as for the kahlua? The flavor was non-existent.

I think I'm actually be generous by giving them any screams at all. The reason they get a scream is because I'm assuming their plain vanilla and chocolate ice creams are good enough to earn at least that. Also, since I sampled the ice cream du jour, it's fair to say that it might never be on the menu again. (We can hope, at least.) However, after the fish jerky and frozen berries experience, you'd have to pay me to go back to the Brickyard.

Rosie's

Shop Name: Rosie's

Location: Somewhere near "the Buck"

Boo's Rating: 2 1/2 Screams

I was SO excited when I first walked into Rosie's. I was with Mindy and Alex (a.k.a. "The New Guy") and we'd just had a relaxing afternoon kayaking on the Susquehanna River. We were very hungry and Mindy suggested Rosie's because we could get dinner AND ice cream (for my blog, of course). When we walked in, I saw a sign listing all sorts of exciting flavors- mango, pineapple, strawberry, mocha cappuccino, raspberry, etc. I was SO excited to try some of them because they were ALL soft-serve and I'd never had many of those flavors in soft serve. After scarfing down a seriously good burger, I went back in to get some ice cream. I ordered the mocha cappuccino in a plain cone, as did Alex. Mindy opted for a chocolate/vanilla twist with chocolate dip. I also got chocolate sprinkles. I asked the girl behind the counter if I could taste a spoonful of the mango and she flat-out refused saying it's not possible. Hmmm... you just lost a couple points, Rosie. Then, she handed me my ice cream. It was a generous portion, but that's about all I have to say about it that's positive. Their idea of "mocha cappuccino" ice cream is a barely perceptible swirl of flavor on the edges of a swirl of vanilla ice cream. That is how ALL their special flavors are achieved. I'm sorry, Rosie, but I feel misled, deceived, and dare I say it? Lied to. You should explain somewhere in your signage that all those special flavors are actually just vanilla ice cream with a tiny glimmer of a different flavor. Seriously, after the first lick around the cone, the mocha flavoring was pretty much gone. And since I'd been so foolish as to order sprinkles, I really didn't even get to taste the mocha flavoring. It couldn't have been that good, since the chocolate sprinkles completely overpowered it. The vanilla ice cream was pretty bland and I didn't feel like eating it all, but I felt a responsibility to taste the cone. I scraped most of the ice cream off the top so I could take a bite of the cone. It was fresh, at least. There was a cute little dog with a Red Sox collar on (go Sox!) who I befriended while we were there. He enjoyed the rest of my cone, or at least he appeared to. I gave Rosie 2 1/2 screams because it's pretty bad when a dog enjoys the cone more than me.

P.S. Sorry for the poor description under "location" but I have NO idea what street Rosie's is on. It is definitely close to "the Buck" and probably about 10 minutes from "Lock 15" if that helps.

Pine View Acres Dairy

Shop Name: Pine View Acres Dairy

Location: New Danville Pike

Boo's Rating: 3 Screams

Pine View Acres Dairy was .... ok. I would probably not drive out there again just for their ice cream. It was good ice cream, but far from the best I've tasted. I ordered a scoop of Oreo on a cone. At first I was really excited because I looked at the scoop and there was an ENTIRE OREO COOKIE poking out. For busy ice cream that would have been impressive, if it weren't for the fact that the cookie I saw was just about the only cookie in the ice cream. Once I'd eaten the cookie, it was as if I'd ordered a cone of vanilla. Shame on you, Pine View!

Fortuntately for the dairy, there were a lot of other flavor options, all homemade. Vanessa ordered a scoop of pineapple coconut ice cream and her review was that while it was delicious, the pineapple chunks were a bit too large. It was, however, quite busy. I believe she said she would prefer the coconut ice cream at the Lapp Valley Farm, which we visited a few weeks ago.

The good news about Pine View is that they also have a small convenience store where they sell their fresh milk (in bags, fyi). You can also walk around to visit the cows, as pictured above. I'm starting to think Vanessa will only go ice cream blogging with me if there are farm animals to pet. I personally think she's got an obsession with cows, but I could be wrong. For me, I'd rather NOT smell manure while licking an ice cream cone. However, that did not effect my rating- I gave Pine View a very fair 3 screams.