Peanut Butter Moose Tracks

I spent an afternoon at the Marion Stoddart Conservation Area and Dr. Davis Ice Cream was nearby.¹ Big menu board out front, lots of parking and a bunch of picnic tables with giant umbrellas (good shade) for outdoor seating. The counter is inside - not a lot of space for a line but a sensible one-door-in, one-door-out arrangement so it probably doesn't get unmanageable when crowded.

According to the umbrellas, they've been there since 1939; there's also a second shop in New Hampshire. Their website suggests that it's been in the family the whole time.

One nice thing about homebrew shops (like Mad Maggie's) is while they'll have the basics, they'll also have their own custom choices, like "Peanut Butter Moose Tracks" or "Grahamtastic".² Also as a small-town shop, they have "(server-name)'s Favorite!" stickers on a couple of the flavors which I've seen at a couple of places before (I'd guess that it helps the indecisive, since you can narrow down to a flavor that someone is happy about?) Hand lettered on bits of postit-note and tape, it is certainly earnest.

Dr. Davis has an extensive list of conventional ice cream, plus a few sherbets, sorbets, and frozen yogurts. They have four sizes of cups (while Large is still generous, "Triple" is an even larger three scoops), two sizes of sundae (including banana splits and an over-the-top "Doc's Special") as well as frappes, freezes, floats, and ice cream soda. They have packed pints and quarts, three sizes of ice cream cake, and will even sell you a box of cones or a ½ pint of jimmies for a take-home party.

Toppings include Sour Gummi Worms and Nerds, along with more conventional marshmallow, butterscotch, and walnuts.

They do not appear to have soft-serve currently - there was a machine behind the counter, but the cover was off and it looked like it was in the middle of being repaired.

First Visit

Since they didn't have a death-by-chocolate variant, I went with "Peanut Butter Moose Tracks" and "Butter Crunch" (with chocolate jimmies.) The icecream itself was on the lighter side of creaminess compared to a lot Massachusetts shops - still tasty, just a little less dense. The peanut butter flavor was there (as a flavor, not as a swirl) and the chocolate-peanut butter candy bits were good. The Butter Crunch had good crunchable brickle bits and though the ice cream didn't have a strong buttery flavor, you could taste the sweetness of the crunchy bits throughout the ice cream which was nice.

Next Visit

This place will definitely get a return visit, probably after another Nashua River photography trip. Possibly I'll see what their "Green Monster" is like (I'm pretty sure it won't be blue but I don't know yet) or depending on how late in the year they're open (they appear to be a summer-season shop) the "Peppermint Stick" looks like a tempting early-fall choice.