Pup Cup
Went out to the Hopkinton Winter Farmer's Market since it was an unusually nice day for February and I wanted to check out Edward's Coffee Company and Pure Pastry. As far as I can tell, every ice cream shop in Hopkinton proper is closed for the winter, but T. C. Scoops in the next town over was open.1
There's no outdoor seating (just a dozen or so spaces of shared parking lot) but the interior space is huge - lots of spread out tables and a long serving counter. They have an unusual number of brightly colored ice cream flavors - some conventional, some you just have to ask about (like "Crazy Vanilla".)
T. C. Scoops serves Hershey Ice Cream, FoMu non-dairy (coconut-milk based) dessert, and an oat-milk-based option; they also have sorbet and "Incredible Ice".
Toppings are divided into wet (hot fudge, strawberries, whipped cream) and dry (oreo bits, heath bar bits, gummy bears), including Chocolate Jimmies and Rainbow Sprinkles. They also have "Crunchy Cotton Candy" and "Plantain Chips" which might be worth a try just for the novelty.
They have four serving sizes of ice cream, and corresponding sundae sizes, along with a top-it-yourself sundae bar. They also have specialty sundaes like banana split, brownie, and waffle cone.
They have frappes, floats, ice cream soda, smoothies, and raspberry lime rickie; they also list a decadent-sounding "frozen hot chocolate".
First Visit
I started with their "Extreme Chocolate" with Chocolate Jimmies (sort of redundant, but they're more for added texture anyway.) It was an almost black color with a strong (but not bitter) chocolate flavor; nothing mixed in. Not quite as creamy a base as I'm used to but the richness of the chocolate flavor made up for that.
A closeup of the Extreme Chocolate ice cream itself, without the layer of Jimmies hiding it.
The "Creamsicle" deserves the name - a bright orange with a "cream" swirl that reminds me exactly of the true Creamsicle® bars from my childhood. (It's not unusual to make a Creamsicle variant by swirling in vanilla ice cream - which is also a tasty treat and I'm not suggesting it's wrong, but it doesn't hit the exact nostalgic notes the way this version does.)
Another view showing the density of the cream swirl after getting halfway through the Creamsicle part.
Next Visit
Holliston is kind of small and out of the way (before this review, the town was entirely absent from my travel photography collection) so it isn't likely to become a regular haunt - but I'm likely to find an excuse to stop back at Gaetano's Bakery for their Florentine Cookies, so that would be a good chance to stop in and try some of their more unusual flavors like "Playdough" (colorful vanilla base with cookies mixed in), "Crazy Vanilla", or "Butter Brittle Crunch" - or maybe just get a Frozen Hot Chocolate (perhaps in the summer, just to compare with the classic Serendipity 3 version.)
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Also, Table Top Pizza is right next door to T. C. Scoops so I could get a proper lunch first - Taple Top is a pizza and subs place and has a really good meatball and sausage parm sub. ↩
Truly's is in Wellesley Square, pretty much in the middle of town (though it still manages to have a decent amount of street parking1.) Lots of outdoor picnic tables and benches, plus a tiny amount of indoor seating - which went entirely unused anyway, on this unseasonably warm November evening. They even have their own Truly's-branded2 "Big Belly" solar compactor next to the benches, which is actually a pretty good way to encourage customers to clean up after themselves3. The location is also a five minute walk from the Wellesley Square4 commuter rail station, and is even closer to the Smith & Wollensky5 steakhouse.
This was a late night "oh look, they're actually open until 9pm" get-out-of-the-house roadtrip; as such my store front pictures are only marginally lit, but even bad pictures make an important point: Google Street View here is so out of date that it's actively wrong, even though they claim the last driveby was in 20226. There is now one storefront (boarded up in streetview) and the "Truly's Curbside/Truly Yogurt" storefront is gone, replaced with fancy "under construction" window art and an awning labelling the construction as the future site of Truly's Catering.
The primary ice cream menu is fairly short, though the frozen yogurt menu is nearly half that length; they also have a few sorbets, a sherbert, one no-sugar-added flavor, soft serve, sundaes and frappes. Their non-infringing weather-named soft serve plus mixin desserts are called Flurries. They also have FoMu vegan non-dairy "plant based" options. They also have tea, coffee, and enough of an espresso bar to make Affogatos ("your choice but we recommend vanilla".)
Notably, one of their specialty Frappes is The Pick-Me-Up, which the website describes as Cold Brew plus vanilla ice cream plus caramel drizzle - similar to one of Mad Maggie's cold brew features.
Toppings include Gummy Bears, Pop Rocks, and Malt; they also have Chocolate and Rainbow Sprinkles, but no Jimmies.
Do take a look in the freezers - aside from them just being bright and colorful (that Cake Batter is an almost Neon Yellow) they also have flavors that don't appear on the board, like the Death By Chocolate and Pumpkin Oreo in this shot.
First Visit
I started with Toll House - vanilla with chocolate chip cookies, rather than cookie dough, still very sweet but also a little crunchy. Very creamy ice cream, they may not have a lot of flavors but they seem to be doing a good job of them.
The second half was the Boston-themed Green Monster - mint with oreos and fudge swirl. Nice strong mint (enough to overpower the Toll House entirely, but that's why it was a good second half) and a generous proportion of cookies and fudge sauce. If you're in a mint mood it would be a choice as a standalone flavor.
Next Visit
I might try an Affogato next time, with Mocha Chip or Totally Turtle; a Pick-Me-Up is another possibility. If I'm just getting ice cream, then Pistachio or Death By Chocolate have caught my eye; at a different time of year, the Phantomberry might also be interesting: "Made for our friends at the Phantom Gourmet... Black raspberry ice cream with a cookie crunch swirl and fudge brownie pieces" sounds like an interesting set of textures in a strong summer flavor.
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I didn't find nearby public parking like Wally's Wicked Good had though panning out on google maps found the Weston Road Parking Lot only a ten minute walk away. It's just that there was cheap but metered parking all along Grove Street (which took apps, SMS, and actual coins) with a 2hr limit, so all I had to do was turn the car around to face the correct direction. ↩
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"Truly's 💟 you. Love us back and dispose of your trash!" ↩
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The compactor is marketed as storing five times as much trash as a normal can of the same size; usually the energy consumption is compared against "how often a garbage truck needs to show up", but the immediately visible benefit is that it also "phones home" before full, and avoiding overflow keeps the area clean (and clean areas are more likely to stay clean.) ↩
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Wellesley Square is three stops and five minutes schedule time outbound on the Framingham/Worcester line from Auburndale which is a short walk from Wally's Wicked Good. If you combine that with Bedford Farms being literally on the tracks at the Concord stop (on a different line, though) you start having the makings of an Ice Cream Rail-Trail... ↩
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Unlike my most of my restaurant mentions, this was not actually part of my ice cream exploration - just something well-known and really close to the ice cream shop as a landmark. I'm more likely to try Café Mangal or Juniper if the opportunity arises. ↩
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It's not that big a deal, Google will lead you to the right area which is brightly lit and you can look around and figure it out - but it's 2024, I can get retail satellite imagery tasked, with 48 hour turn around or less, for a few hundred dollars; there really should be a "Uber for Streetview Updates" by now... ↩
Trombetta's Farm in Marlborough is an ice cream shop that looks like it's trying to hide by pulling a garden center around itself like a blanket. Even the website shows more plants, minigolf, and event info than ice cream (to be fair, there is an ice cream-specific page but that's basically the catering menu.) We won't be distracted by the camouflage, as you see from the three serving windows in the above picture (if you ignore the Corn Husks and Pumpkins - it is Autumn in New England after all, they're kind of obligatory.)
It turns out that they also have an indoor counter and a bunch of indoor seating, plus four porch swings and at least half a dozen picnic tables - they're just not particularly near the serving window, but distributed around the multi-purpose building. Despite all that, they have an extensive ice cream menu and a wide range of related options: Sundaes (including a banana boat and a waffle bowl), a dozen flavors of soft serve, Richie's Slush, a Pup Cup1, Raspberry Lime Rickey, Freezes Frappes and Floats, Frozen Yogurt, Sherbet and Sorbet. Didn't see any No Sugar Added2 options, though there was a side panel of a handful of Vegan flavors on the Specialty Flavors chalkboard.
They seem to be open year round and, in addition to having rows and rows of pumpkins and other gourds in the garden shop areas, seem to be "Leaning In" to autumn with flavors like Pumpkin, Pumpkin Oreo, Apple, Cinnamon, and S'mores3 - plus they have Pumpkin Soft Serve.
Finally, they have two things I haven't seen on any previous menu - popsicles (maybe to go with their catering-ice-cream-truck service, since that includes Bomb Pops, an ice cream truck staple) and the Dirt Cup - soft serve with cookie crunch, gummy worms, and candy rocks - no mention if they serve it in the traditional flower pot, though.
First Visit
Despite the gourd-filled surroundings, I was not mislead, and got Dutch Chocolate ice cream - for a "pure flavor" ice cream (no mixins, no fudge swirl, just ice cream) it was surprisingly dark-chocolatey, I'd definitely pair that with a crunchy topping or some other chocolate-contrasting flavor next time (they do have Grapenut, my usual "pure crunch" choice, but Peppermint Stick or Black Raspberry would be interesting pairs as well.)
I paired it with one of the specials, "Peanut Butter Implosion" - mini peanut butter cups, peanut butter m&ms (or something like that) in what might have been a peanut butter ice cream base - but I'm not sure, it didn't stand up to the Dutch Chocolate (though I was happy with it as far as supplying extra crunch.) I might try it by itself or with something lighter on a future visit.
Future Visits
I'm definitely going to end up here again - it's less than ten minutes drive from The Fix Burger Bar, Gerardo's Italian Bakery4 - and it's also right near Lake Williams5 which is a great option if you want to balance your ice cream with some outdoor activity, especially on a sunny fall day.
As for ice cream choices - the Mocha Cappuccino Soft Serve sounds tempting (possibly because I'd started the day with an actual mocha from Sudbury Coffee Works) as does the Death By Chocolate (from the specialty menu.) I'd normally think of Salted Caramel as a good topping but they had it as a flavor; a friend tried it, it seems like it needs to be paired with something else but it could work.
(My inner twelve-year-old who isn't a Massachusetts-trained ice cream snob wants a Dirt Cup with vanilla/chocolate twist and walnuts and jimmies on top. Maybe next spring, I'll bring a mini-shovel...)
Just don't get distracted by the surrounding garden shop! (picture below suggests ordering Ice Cream Cakes... and firewood?)
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The Pup Cup is soft serve with a milk bone on top - simpler than Foley's "Lassie" serving, but still uncommon. ↩
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Turns out the website lists "No Sugar Black Raspberry" and "No Sugar Coffee" on their "staples" list - but that might only be available from the catered ice cream truck "fleet". That page also points out the Richie's Slush and the sorbets as Dairy Free options, in addition to the Vegan flavor list. ↩
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S'mores was actually on the main menu, and might be more of a summer thing, but it's campfire season too. ↩
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What is the difference between a chocolate-dipped Lobster Claw and an ice cream in a chocolate-dipped sugar cone? Perhaps I should review them as an "ice cream shop" after all... ↩
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Lake Williams has a 1.5 mile loop trail around the lake, ⅓ of the length being a boardwalk in the lake itself and the rest being forest and shoreline trails. It's a mostly flat path, though there is an optional ridge climb segment on the West Shore that runs along the power lines before dropping back down to the lake. ↩
Mac's Dairy Farm is on 38 in Tewksbury - about five miles north of Dandi-Lyons (the Tewksbury one, not Dandi-Lyons in Reading.) It has lots of parking in front and more in back, plus a bunch of picnic tables. They have four serving windows under their yellow-lit awning1 and there seemed to be an indoor counter as well, but that might be for winter use - or might not, the top picture on their website shows their serving windows open to a snowy parking lot, although all the picnic tables are stowed away.
They have a lengthy but familiar-looking hard ice cream list (their website advertises that they serve Richardson's ice cream) but they also have soft serve (twist but no dip), sundaes, Richie's slush, frappes/sodas/floats, yogurt, sherbet, sorbet, and Raspberry Lime Rickey. They also sell hand packed quarts/pints/half-gallons, but you can also get a pint of fudge (or other toppings.) They don't have a "tasting flight" but they do have "Mac's Mountain" 4-scoop sundae.
They also have seasonal flavors - for fall, "Apple Crisp", "Pumpkin", and "Pumpkin Oreo".
Tucked away in a corner of the feature menu they list soft serve "pup cups" which I don't think I've noticed before - I'll start keeping an eye out for it, though.
First Visit
I started with Butter Crunch (nice creamy base - though given the lighting, I have no idea if it matched the bright yellow color of Chelmsford Creamery's Butter Pecan - and properly "crunchable" sugar bits.) I paired that with Totally Turtle - vanilla with cashews, brownie chunks, and caramel swirl - which is a good "lots of stuff" flavor which matches the one I enjoyed at Dandi-Lyons.
On a return visit, their Death By Chocolate and Crunch-a-Saurus are pretty high on the list - I should get around to trying a blue vanilla some time, having seen it at several places now - and possibly the Green Monster or Campfire S'moores2. The "Mac's Mountain" is also something to keep in mind next time I'm prepared for a lot of ice cream, probably not after dinner though. (If I'm back soon enough the Apple Crisp fall-seasonal flavor looks intriguing but it's one of those things that could be great, could be a soggy mess, definitely have to be in an adventurous mood to try it out.)
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Supposedly, many bugs can't see yellow light - so it doesn't specifically repel them, it just doesn't attract them either (unlike blue-to-ultraviolet which does.) It has become relatively common (but not universal) for ice cream shops that are open into the evening to have yellow lights over their serving windows, at least in Massachusetts. ↩
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yes, it's written that way on the sign, and as "Campfire S'moores" on the website; I'm not mocking anyone's handwriting, Mac's seems to be using that consistently - though it's not from upstream vendor Richardson's who goes with "Campfire S'mores". ↩