Arctic Island Ice Cream
Growing up, arctic was one of those words I had a lot of trouble spelling when I was growing up. Mostly because nobody actually pronounces the first "c." Writing this blog post is going to be a spelling struggle.
It was my last day in Syracuse and my grandmother and I realized we had only been to one ice cream shop my whole visit. Luckily, my flight wasn't until the afternoon, so there was time to visit one more.
Arctic Island is not too far down the road from Gannon's. And in internet ice cream world (aka people commenting on a list of the best ice cream shops in the area) there is much debate about which is better, Gannon's or Arctic Island. My cousins Jack and Ben, used to like Arctic Island more than Gannon's, but as of late the tides have turned. Given the amount of ice cream my cousin, Jack, eats (he had three times the amount of ice cream I did when we were at Gannon's), I think their opinions are trustworthy.
The big deal at Arctic Island is their lavender ice cream. Multiple family members told me about it and it was advertised on the big sign in front of the store. I've had lavender ice cream before, back before I started reviewing ice cream, and I didn't love it. But with all the hoopla around Arctic Island's lavender ice cream, I figured I would at least sample the flavor. Also, I found out after eating this ice cream Arctic Island only offers this flavor once a year. I guess I got lucky it was being served when I was visiting. I liked the sample, but I was super conflicted because there was a flavor, Peanut Butter Espresso Oreo, and it also sounded super tasty. Luckily, as I was informed by the scooper I could get two different flavors in a small, so I got both.
The last time I had a lavender ice cream, I didn't love it because it was super strong. Lavender is a nice flavor, but in my opinion, it can easily be overpowering. For those of you who haven't eaten lavender and are wondering what it tastes like, I have a simple solution. Go outside, find a lavender bush, smell it, and boom you know the taste of lavender. In this ice cream, underneath the lavender flavor, there was a sweet, even vanilla-ey flavor which helped to nicely mellow the lavender flavor out. Overall I enjoyed this lavender ice cream experience much more than the last time.
I also enjoyed the PB Espresso Oreo flavor. It was a coffee base, with a peanut butter swirl, and chocolate cookie chunks. The coffee base was sweet and on the mild side. This was the only downfall to this ice cream. Because it was so sweet and so mild, at times, it got overpowered by the peanut butter and the Oreo. The peanut butter swirl was magical. It was sweet and peanut. The texture wasn't liquidy like a peanut sauce but also wasn't hard and crunchy like some other peanut swirls. The Oreo chunks were broken apart enough so they were more of a crumble than a chunk. But there was still a lot of cookie bunched all together and they weren't quite soggy, so I enjoyed them. This flavor was definitely delicious but could have used another notch of coffee and one fewer notch of sweetness. The texture of both ice creams was hard. There was a decent amount of air visible in the ice cream, and yet it was still hard. You had to mash your spoon into it to get a bite from it.
Based on the overall selection of flavors and the quality of the flavors I got, I am going to have to disagree with my cousins. Or agree with their past selves. I liked Arctic Island better.
It was my last day in Syracuse and my grandmother and I realized we had only been to one ice cream shop my whole visit. Luckily, my flight wasn't until the afternoon, so there was time to visit one more.
Arctic Island is not too far down the road from Gannon's. And in internet ice cream world (aka people commenting on a list of the best ice cream shops in the area) there is much debate about which is better, Gannon's or Arctic Island. My cousins Jack and Ben, used to like Arctic Island more than Gannon's, but as of late the tides have turned. Given the amount of ice cream my cousin, Jack, eats (he had three times the amount of ice cream I did when we were at Gannon's), I think their opinions are trustworthy.
The big deal at Arctic Island is their lavender ice cream. Multiple family members told me about it and it was advertised on the big sign in front of the store. I've had lavender ice cream before, back before I started reviewing ice cream, and I didn't love it. But with all the hoopla around Arctic Island's lavender ice cream, I figured I would at least sample the flavor. Also, I found out after eating this ice cream Arctic Island only offers this flavor once a year. I guess I got lucky it was being served when I was visiting. I liked the sample, but I was super conflicted because there was a flavor, Peanut Butter Espresso Oreo, and it also sounded super tasty. Luckily, as I was informed by the scooper I could get two different flavors in a small, so I got both.
This is a pretty hefty small for $3.50
The last time I had a lavender ice cream, I didn't love it because it was super strong. Lavender is a nice flavor, but in my opinion, it can easily be overpowering. For those of you who haven't eaten lavender and are wondering what it tastes like, I have a simple solution. Go outside, find a lavender bush, smell it, and boom you know the taste of lavender. In this ice cream, underneath the lavender flavor, there was a sweet, even vanilla-ey flavor which helped to nicely mellow the lavender flavor out. Overall I enjoyed this lavender ice cream experience much more than the last time.
I also enjoyed the PB Espresso Oreo flavor. It was a coffee base, with a peanut butter swirl, and chocolate cookie chunks. The coffee base was sweet and on the mild side. This was the only downfall to this ice cream. Because it was so sweet and so mild, at times, it got overpowered by the peanut butter and the Oreo. The peanut butter swirl was magical. It was sweet and peanut. The texture wasn't liquidy like a peanut sauce but also wasn't hard and crunchy like some other peanut swirls. The Oreo chunks were broken apart enough so they were more of a crumble than a chunk. But there was still a lot of cookie bunched all together and they weren't quite soggy, so I enjoyed them. This flavor was definitely delicious but could have used another notch of coffee and one fewer notch of sweetness. The texture of both ice creams was hard. There was a decent amount of air visible in the ice cream, and yet it was still hard. You had to mash your spoon into it to get a bite from it.
Based on the overall selection of flavors and the quality of the flavors I got, I am going to have to disagree with my cousins. Or agree with their past selves. I liked Arctic Island better.
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