Tag: maine

Treat

Treat, Raleigh, NC | In Search of a Scoop

How cute is this street sign?

Treat is an adorable ice cream shop in downtown Raleigh, North Carolina. Although they don’t make their own ice cream, they carry Maple View Farm, a local company, and they take their ice cream very seriously. They also offer coffee and a few other light options.

According to the owners, the ice cream is made by people who moved to North Carolina from Maine.

Be sure to check their hours: if you’re visiting in the winter like I did, they don’t stay open late. But I highly recommend a visit here, where you’ll enjoy great service, reasonable prices (especially for a downtown location, it’s quite cheap!) and some epic sundae options. Treat, Raleigh, NC | In Search of a Scoop

Here’s what I tried:

Praline – Wow. There is a darkness to this, a prominence to the flavor that’s fantastic. Yum.

Honey Roasted Almond – Quite nice. Not the best I’ve had in this vein, but it’s really nice even if it doesn’t reinvent the wheel.

Peppermint – This is now one of my favorites, with a softer peppermint flavor I really enjoyed. It’s close to top 5 for me. It’s not one note, with a real creaminess plus the peppermint…kind of keeps evolving as you eat it.

Chocolate – This is a classic darker chocolate. Akin to chocolate pudding.

Cinnamon – It reminded me of a delicious fall dessert. Complex. Not my dream smoothness but an excellent dessert.

Coffee – I had high hopes, but this actually wasn’t my favorite style of coffee. Good, but not in the Brigham’s etc. category. The owners are clearly proud of this, and my family enjoyed it, but it just didn’t quite do it for me.

Treat, Raleigh, NC | In Search of a Scoop

Treat is hard to beat in downtown Raleigh for ice cream!

Maple View Farm ice cream is appropriately rich and creamy. The owners at Treat are as friendly and welcoming as it gets. Stop by for a bite, and tell them In Search of a Scoop sent you!

p.s. Thanks for supporting my blog by doing your usual online shopping via my Amazon affiliate link!

Discovering Mt. Desert Island, Maine

Mt. Desert Island is an ice cream company based in Bar Harbor. I’ve always heard great things about them, but I was delighted to experience it for myself during a visit to their Portland, Maine location last week. Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, Portland, ME | In Search of a Scoop

Due to a busy schedule and a very busy store, I couldn’t try my ideal, wide range of flavors. But I really enjoyed the flavors I did get to try.

They’ve got some pretty original and unusual flavors, but there are a few classics in the midst if you want to play it safe. Here’s what I had:Mt. Desert Island Ice Cream, Portland, ME | In Search of a Scoop

Bay of Figs – This was creamy and sweet and full of fig flavor. The texture was very good. If you like figs, you’ll enjoy this. For my taste, I’d recommend pairing it with another flavor.

Kulfi – This is an absolutely epic pistachio dessert. It’s a delicious take on the dessert itself and I could have eaten this for days. Such a treat if you like pistachios!

This is fun and quirky stuff, artisanal with smaller portions and higher prices but worth it.

Apparently the Obamas visited on vacation which got them some extra press! I hadn’t realized that until after my visit, for the record.

I loved my visit to Mt. Desert Island and look forward to the next one.

Happy eating! And if you enjoyed this, maybe you’d like to read my review of Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick?

Gelato Fiasco in Brunswick

My brother Robbie has recently moved to Brunswick, Maine, and my husband Ross and I were excited to spend a couple of days with him and his girlfriend, Ria. I have some challenging dietary restrictions, but Robbie and Ria insisted on cooking a delicious meal for us before following it up with some delicious dessert at Gelato Fiasco. He clearly knows the way to my heart!

Gelato Fiasco seemed reasonably priced for a city, and perhaps most importantly, they encouraged us to try as many flavors as we wanted – and we could combine as many flavors as we wanted in a cup! I think Ross and I got mediums (and a Robbie and Ria got smalls). Since there were four of us on hand, we were able to sample a lot of selections. Here’s what we thought!

Sweet Resurgam: This flavor includes sweet almond, burnt sugar, chocolate and caramel. It reminded me strongly of a Ferraro Rocher candy, which I loved. Extremely creamy. Absolutely outstanding. Ross found it peanut buttery. The chocolate is perfect and the flavors melt and blend in the mouth perfectly.

Cardamom: This is subtle, with a nice spice throughout. It’s a perfectly fall flavor. Not nearly as creamy as the sweet resurgam – much more typical of gelato, which doesn’t have a very high fat content.

Dark Chocolate Sea Salt: A darker chocolate base with the perfect amount of salt. It’s excellent. It’s almost as if hot fudge were gelato, although not as sweet. Deliciously creamy.

Caramel and Cider Donuts: Robbie thought there might be too much donut here! Each part was delicious, but he felt the ratio was off. Ross didn’t get many chunks in his, and he felt the gelato had no distinct flavor. Cinnamon, caramel or something would have been nice. Tastes perhaps like a generic vanilla.

Netflix and Chill: This flavor has peanut butter cups, brownies, chocolate chips and a caramel base. Ross really liked the overload of sweet treats here.

Fall in Bourbon County: This tastes like pumpkin and isn’t too sweet. They add bourbon and it had a little caramel to it. Ross said the pecans elevate it – the clusters are caramelized or glazed. Robbie added that this one doesn’t taste like every other fall thing. Ria enjoyed the bit of warmth and punch from the alcohol.

Ross sampled all of my flavors as well as his own, and he felt that the dark chocolate sea salt and sweet resurgam were much creamier than the other flavors we had. Perhaps their fall flavors are less polished and they’re still balancing? Or maybe I just lucked out.

Gelato Fiasco was founded in Brunswick, but they also have a Portland location. Their website is pretty fantastic, and I enjoyed reading about their Red Spoon Society.

It’s an adorable place that also carries coffee and gets very busy in the evenings. Stop by and report back on how you liked it!

p.s. Thanks for supporting the blog by doing your usual online shopping via my Amazon affiliate link!

Chillin’ on the Seacoast – An Epic 3 Part Adventure of Violence, Seafood and Ice Cream (Part 3)

It has been FAR too long since my last post – so sorry for the delay, life has been crazy – so let’s get right back into it. As you may recall from parts 1 and 2, we visited two ice cream places and the beautiful Hartley Mason Reservation on the ocean.

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