Just before I started this blog, a friend mentioned that we should go somewhere for National S'mores Day. "Life is uncertain, eat dessert first" so we went to Friendly's (see below) for a S'mores Sundae before I did my usual research¹ into the background of the holiday.

Background

The deteriorating state of internet search combined with ephemeral marketing content means I was unable to find a really convincing "patient zero" for S'mores Day - although I found references going back to 2007, it wasn't clear if those were actually early references or just the time horizon on search (some of my better references were only available in the Internet Archive's occasional scrapes of Twitter, which is not an impressive quality metric.)

Factoids

• It is definitely 10 August.
• It's the birthday of Henri Nestlé. (Rather less relevant is that it is also the birthday of Leo Fender and Antonio Banderas.)²
• "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" (1927) is a widely cited early-but-not-actually-first publication of the recipe. (See page 71 and 72 of the book at the Google Books link above, under the subheading “Some Mores”.)
• Late Addition The Google Doodle for 9 September 2024 was about S'mores in general, because "On this day in 1925, article called Patrol Leaders Have Outing came out mentioning some-mores' being introduced as a new dish at Camp Andree (national Girl Scout camp)" and also adds the vague claim that "the s’more first appeared in a 1920s cookbook and was called a “graham cracker sandwich.”" It turns out the article is actually available online (page five, column B) as quoted in a S'more enthusiasm blog and review site that started in 2019. Noone is actually claiming this as an alternate "S'mores day", just a 99th anniversary of an early newspaper mention, but the google doodle gets a lot of visibility...

Timeline (2020-2024)

In 2021, Krispy Kreme partnered with Hershey to make Hershey S'mores Donuts in two variations: S’mores Classic Doughnut and S’mores Fudge Cake Doughnut. Unfortunately, https://www.krispykreme.com/promos/smores is a dead end, and it isn't clear from the Internet Archive when it went away more precisely than "before 2023", so it may have been a single year promotion.

(Dunkin Donuts also introduced both a S'mores donut and several S'mores coffee products in 2017, some of which went away but the coffee is still available in 2024 via Target.)

Timeline (2015-2019)

NASA posted about National Smores Day in 2015 archive.org, twitter saying "For #NationalSmoresDay, may we suggest Sun S’mores? How to harness sun's energy to make them: http://climatekids.nasa.gov/smores" (an article that details building a solar oven out of a foil-lined cardboard box and using it to cook s'mores - definitely an edge case to challenge my "S'mores must involve Fire" theory below.)

Another popular calendar site, Days Of The Year first posted about it in late 2017, crediting the "National Confectioners Association". Founded in 1884, they have an active twitter presence at @CandyUSA, but twitter itself has deteriorated a bit and scrolling back manually only gets to 2019 which doesn't look like a first post; oldest on web.archive.org is 2008-10-26 but nothing crawled in August until 2013 (and that didn't mention the day.) So it appears to not have been part of their social media presence even though they had one very early in the game (they had an account when twitter was still only two years old - their account is almost as old as mine is) which makes it somewhat unlikely that they actually founded it - also, noone else mentions them as an instigator.

In 2018, CNBC worked out that, based on the recipe from "Tramping and Trailing"...

• The original ingredients would have cost $0.81 in the 1920s;
• Inflation adjustment makes that equivalent $11.66 in 2018;
• Purchasing the ingredients from Target in 2018 was $12.50.

In 2016, Hershey did a brand marketing exercise about the day itself: "Hershey's sponsored the #SmoreFun hashtag on Twitter yesterday,", "Stacie Stauffer³, senior brand manager at Hershey’s Brand", "“Relive the joy of your first s’more. Have #SmoreFun this National S’mores Day by sharing your favorite treat!”"⁴ (The internet archive version of the article is more complete than the MarketingDive mirror, and actually has a datestamp and a screenshot of the referenced Hersheys posting, which itself is (unsuprisingly) dated 10 August 2016 and links to a HersheyLand Recipes Page that is still online..)

Timeline (2010-2014)

• In 2010, popartdiva says "“National S’mores Day” is on August 10th each year - this date was instituted by the Hershey Company" which is the earliest citation I have that credits Hershey.
• In 2011, meanderingwithbev note that "While the holiday is not official (which an act of Congress requires) it has been celebrated for years" as sort of an anti-citation.
• The #NationalSmoresDay hashtags goes at least as far back as 2013.
• Ben And Jerry's mentions the day in 2014, with "Happy National S’mores Day! How about S’mores on s’mores to celebrate? #peaceloveicecream"

Timeline (2000-2009)

The oldest references I have are from 2007.

• The Pittsburgh (PA) Post-Gazette wrote "Who knew? National S'mores Day is nigh" in 2007, describing Hershey's engagement (they are after all a local company) with "The Hershey Company is doing its part in celebrating 80 years of this gooey, chocolatey confection by coming up with unique twists to the original combination of milk chocolate, graham crackers and toasted marshmallows" but without shining any light on the founding of the day.
• The Baking Bites blog also provides an anti-citation - "I’m still not entirely sure who comes up with these days"

Places with S'mores Ice Cream

Having now tried a few of these options - they are certainly interesting but my traditionalist side insists that they're not S'mores if you didn't set something on fire to make them 🔥. That said, mid-August isn't a great time for outdoor fires; I happen to have an opportunity to do make S'mores in late spring during an annual community "spring cleaning" yard-scraps bonfire, which happened to overlap with the 2024 solar eclipse but Walpurgisnacht bonfires are also an option. Even as late as the 4th of July, S'mores on the leftover barbecue coals is great, but by mid August, noone wants to add fire to 90F temperatures - so S'mores Ice Cream is at least worth considering.

Nanabette's

Nanabette's has a S'mores Ice Cream (haven't tried yet as of review time.)

Friendly's

Friendly's introduced a S'mores Sundae in time for S'mores Day 2024. Chocolate ice cream, graham cracker crumbs, chocolate syrup, small-but-not-mini marshmallows on top. Unfortunately the "raw" marshmallows basically failed - they were much too sweet and weren't "gooey" so it didn't really work.

They actually have a Limited Edition S'mores ice cream in 1.5 quart containers but that wasn't used for the Sundae.

Also in 2020 they had a Sundae Kit: "S’mores without sticky fingers. Just in time for 4th of July, our All-NEW Build Your Own S’mores Sundae Kit is now available. Kit includes: One carton of vanilla ice cream, graham cracker crumbles, hot fudge, marshmallow topping, whipped cream, cones and cups."

Ben and Jerry's

(See "Timeline (2010-2014)" above for history) They used to have a "S'Mores" flavor with a chocolate base, dropped it, and now have "Gimme S'More" and "PB S'more". They also have S'mores Mix Snackable Graham Cracker Cookie Dough & Marshmallow Truffles in pouches. No idea if they actually have any of these in stores, though.

Rota Spring Farm

Rota Spring Farm has an amazing Graham Central Station (graham cracker ice cream with chocolate-covered graham cracker bits) which turns out to be a better S'mores than Friendly's version even without marshmallows. Top it with some marshmallow sauce and wave a torch over it for ten seconds (you may have to bring your own torch) and it would win the day.

Meadowlands Homemade Ice Cream

Meadowlands Homemade Ice Cream has a S'mores flavor, described as "vanilla ice cream w/marshmallows, chocolate chips, graham cracker" which looks tempting (but may only be a short term special, it was on their Specials board 2024-08-22.)

Theatre Creamery

Maynard Theatre Creamery has a "Campfire S'Mores" ice cream which I actually tried on my first visit. Didn't stand out in comparison to the Rota Spring Farm Graham Central Station (and I haven't yet tried Theatre Creamery's own Graham Central Station) but it's an option if August 10 falls on a weekend (like it did in 2024, and will in 2025, but will skip 2026 2027 and 2028; 2029 it's back on Friday.)

Big Dipper

Big Dipper also has "Campfire S'mores" on their menu; haven't yet tried it. Big Dipper is on route 28 on the north end of North Reading - east of I-93 and south of I-495.

Cherry Hill Ice Cream

Cherry Hill Ice Cream has a S'mores flavor that is "toasted marshallow flavored ice cream w/a graham cracker swirl and chocolate chunks" which is tasty and gets pretty close to "essence of s'mores" without involving actual fire.

The Ice Cream Cottage

The Ice Cream Cottage lists a S'mores flavor (which it gets from Acushnet Creamery according to their grand opening news article.) Not yet sampled.

Cherry Hill Ice Cream¹ is in Lunenburg - just past Leominster on rt 2 and about halfway between 2 and 2A. (There's another one in Townsend that might be larger; the Lunenburg one is a barn-shaped building, with Holstein-cow-colored trash cans, leaning in to the "farm" image.) Vast parking, a handful of serving windows under an overhang, and a bunch of picnic tables (some sheltered.) It is on a hillside, but the parking and benches are level with the building.

First Visit

So far this is the only place I've reviewed that has dip cones but that I didn't try them - their soft-serve machines were offline. They do have a lengthy menu with a mix of creative flavors like "Cowabunga Crunch" and "Monster Mash" along with basics like Strawberry, Banana, and Coffee. They also have a separate board with vegan, yogurt, and no-sugar options.

I got Java Crunch, described as "Columbian Coffee" with mixins; on the spectrum of "tastes like coffee" to "tastes like coffee ice cream" it was pleasantly but unusually far over on the "actual coffee" end of the scale. I also tried their "S'mores" which has a "toasted marshmallow flavored ice cream" base, and definitely gets a lot closer to "essence of s'mores" than most shops do, at least for something that doesn't involve fire. (Note about the picture: Cherry Hill and Chelmsford Creamery are the only two places I've been to so far that serve icecream in clear plastic cups - not necessarily great for insulation but very convenient for food photography!)

On a future visit, top priority is to try their dip cones (but if they can't keep their soft-serve machines running, "I want a dip cone" is a distinct craving from "I want ice cream" so I'll probably end up at Dairy Joy instead, just on reliability...) but after that I'll try Monster Mash (vanilla with oreo pieces, M&Ms, malted milk balls, and caramel swirl - basically "all the crunchies") but Chocolate Cookie Monster, Grasshopper, and Cannoli; they also have a Lemon Meringue Pie Ice Cream which sounds "wrong" to me, but I have some friends who may be willing to give it a shot. Definitely a long and creative menu that I'd work through if I was that far west more often.