Country Creamery and Coffeehouse is a tiny (two serving windows under an overhang) roadside icecream spot in Chelmsford (just north of I-495, about a mile and a half from Sully's) that only does soft serve (and coffee.) It has a couple of parking spots around back, but it's directly attached to Friendship Park/Roberts Field which have a huge public lot (there's even a footbridge over to the field.) They also have a bunch of picnic tables with umbrellas.

First Visit

I picked a nice late summer day with a chance of rain... and as I pulled into the parking lot it started pouring. Being New England this didn't really deter anyone, and there was plenty of room for a handful of people (and one puppy) to hang out under the awning and enjoy our ice cream anyway.

They did not have dip cones, so I went with a chocolate/vanilla twist. There isn't a lot of variation in soft serve, but this was above average in richness/creaminess, which was nice. (I dashed to the car at the first break in the rain to finish it off.)

They are apparently noted for having Dole Whip which was a Disney theme-park exclusive until 2023 so I should give that a try, but what really caught my eye was that the menu lists an Affogato, and I'm curious how that even works with soft serve...

I think of J.P. Licks as one of those chains that's everywhere... but in fact there are only 17 of them, all in Massachusetts. They've just done a really good job of being in places you'd actually run into them; I used to hit the Charles Street location walking back from my office to the Charles/MGH MBTA stop; it's right next to (the recently closed) Savenor's, Julia Child's favorite butcher shop.

The last one I went into was in Andover and, being in the outer suburbs, had lots of indoor table space, art on the walls, and generously sized bathrooms. They're open later than usual (10pm, 11 on weekends, in the summer at least) and had just started doing Affogato (they're actually pretty well known for their coffee, which is why we were there - after a pleasant walk from the Gati Thai Bistro, where we were the last table and didn't want to keep them open just for coffee.)

If you're picking something up for me: I haven't been there nearly enough to be a regular and have strong opinions, but looking at their current menu I want to try their new Thai Iced Tea flavor - but not in an Affogato, I'd probably make that with Maple Butter Walnut (but see elsewhere for how a takeout affogato is just a degenerate latte.)

(Thanks again to @mem_somerville@mastodon.social for mentioning J.P. Licks in the original thread that inspired this blog.)

New City Microcreamery does "Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream", but not the instant-performance kind - they soak the cream in the flavors for 24 hours so they permeate, then do the liquid nitrogen + mixer step to get a great texture, but then serve that from containers. Novel flavors like Baklava and Horchata, plus a range of serving modes including Affogato.

Locations in Hudson (original), Sudbury, and Cambridge (Lafayette Square, a block away from Tosci's.)

If you're picking something up for me: I want an Affogato with a chocolate or chocolate-cookie ice cream, but you can barely finish one of those before the espresso melts the ice cream into some sort of degenerate latte, so maybe get some Baklava Ice Cream instead.