What first comes to mind when you hear the word "summer" and "July"? Grilling? Fireworks? Ice cream? If you were thinking ice cream, then you were thinking the same thing as thousands of people in Atlanta!
At the end of July, Atlanta celebrates the summer with their annual Atlanta Ice Cream Festival in the lovely Piedmont Park. This year marks the 5th year it has been hosted, and it's not hard to see why it's so popular! In addition to several ice cream trucks and booths, there is live entertainment, an ice cream eating contest sponsored by Bruster's, savory foods, local non-food businesses, free health screenings (haha), and kid entertainment stations. As Grace finished her Pharmacy board exams, we decided to stuff ourselves silly with celebratory frozen treats. Also, we have a guest joining us this week! Please say hello to our friend Alice! As usual, we have bravely sacrificed any chances at a beach bod and have tried several ice creams that were offered at the festival.
SereniTEA Creamery
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Price: $3.50 for 1 scoop
Flavors tried: Jasmine Vanilla / Blueberry Lavender / Thai Ice Tea Sorbet |
The SereniTEA Creamery stand was the very first ice cream vendor we saw walking into the park. Their trademark is tea-infused ice creams, made with all-natural flavors and no added coloring. Our general impression of their flavors was mild and light, but enjoyable. It's difficult to concentrate the natural flavors of tea and have them as the primary flavor, but they do a good job with the Thai Ice Tea Sorbet. The Jasmine Vanilla had noticeable jasmine undertones. The Blueberry Lavender had a modest blueberry taste with real blueberries incorporated, but the lavender flavor was faint and almost overshadowed by the blueberry. It was ice cream, but it felt (and tasted) healthy. Guilt-free ice cream is an oxymoron right?
Vintage Frozen Custard
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Price: $3.25 for a frozen custard "push-pop"
Flavors tried: Strawberry / Lemon / Piña Colada |
The highly popular Vintage Frozen Custard truck was preceded by a line of 20-30 people. Patience is a virtue, my friend, and that day it rewarded us with frosty goodness. They offered a myriad of delicious sounding flavors in their convenient push-pop packaging. Grace must have changed her mind a dozen times while standing in line. We definitely wanted to try them all, but alas, we could not do so. Of the three flavors we purchased, Strawberry and Lemon were very pleasing. The Strawberry was strawberry compote (with large pieces of strawberry) mixed in vanilla custard. The Lemon conveyed a potent lemon flavor with bits of refreshing lemon zest. On the other hand, Piña Colada push-pop fell short of Tiffany's expectation. While it did have chunks of frozen pineapples, the base custard was not pineapple-y. It tasted kinda vanilla and left you yearning for something extra. Overall, it was worth the wait.
Leaping Cow Ice Cream
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Price: $4.00 for 1 scoop
Flavors tried: Salty Caramel |
TIFF: At this point in the day, we decided to branch off to try other ice cream flavors. The Leaping Cow Ice Cream tent attracted my attention after the words "Salty Caramel" caught my eye. Also, its small tent was being overshadowed by the winding queue for the giant food truck besides it, so I figured it would be nice to pop in as there was no line. Now, I am a HUGE fan of Salty Caramel, and this one did not disappoint. It had the delicious sweetness you'd expect from caramel along with a wonderful touch of saltiness. The ice cream was also fluffy and creamy in texture. Definitely a rich, delightful treat, but after eating all of it, I was a bit thirsty. I figured I'd quench my thirst with another ice cream.
Little Jimmy’s Italian Ice
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Price: $3.00 for 3 scoops
Flavors tried: Watermelon / Mango / Grape |
Our friend Alice went off and tried some of Little Jimmy's Italian Ices. This tent appeared to have the best deals of the day as she was able to get 3 scoops of any flavor for only $3. She tried Watermelon, Mango, and Grape. She noted that it was good, but kind of interesting eating those flavors together. She also added it was a refreshing as it was a break between the other creamy cold treats we had been eating earlier.
SnoBayou
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Price: $6.00
Flavors tried: Summer In A Cup |
GRACE: Of all the places I tried, this one was my favorite. If I could have handled a large, I would have sized up in a heartbeat. To say that a SnoBayou snoball is a snow cone is grossly underestimating its beauty. The Summer in a Cup is a handcrafted snoball made with watermelon shaved ice wrapped around a raspberry sorbet center, topped with fresh cream and blueberries. SnoBayou locally sources their ingredients and uses organic cane sugar in their fresh all-natural syrups. They also make their own ice cream and sorbets. The ingredients were so fresh, so refreshing and with a perfect touch of sweetness. A far cry from the tongue-dyeing, overly-sweet snow cones we are accustomed to seeing. As I was enjoying my aptly-named Summer in a Cup, I had a brain freeze, but I couldn't stop eating it. IT WAS SO DELICIOUS.
Queen of Cream
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Price: $3.00 for mini size
Flavors tried: Sweet Corn & Blueberry / Vanilla Crème Brûlée |
As we were getting full from our creamy adventures, we figured this would be our last stop. The tent had two little ice cream carts that allowed for faster service and faster moving lines. Their menu had an interesting number of ice creams, but we decided on the Sweet Corn & Blueberry and Vanilla Crème Brûlée. As strange as Sweet Corn & Blueberry sounds, it was actually delicious! The sweetness from the corn was just right and balanced with the blueberries. Both ingredients danced in perfect harmony on our taste buds! The Vanilla Crème Brûlée gave us some crunch with some caramelized sugar bits. While there was some discussion about where the "Crème Brûlée" played in, Grace noted that Crème Brûlée has the same ingredients as ice cream. Well noted, Grace. Well noted.
Would we prescribe it?
The three of us certainly had a lovely experience at the festival. The weather was hot as an oven, but the treats were ice cold. It was the perfect balance. The treats all tasted good, but some did not match their hype. At least, we didn't eat any terrible ones (but is there any such thing as a bad ice cream?). The ice cream festival won't be back until next July, but many of these vendors can be found around town and at food truck events.
We hope you enjoyed our brief coverage of the Atlanta Ice Cream Festival. We skipped lunched in an attempt to make room for more exciting ice creams, but our bellies had their limits. The law of diminishing returns is certainly not your friend when trying to YOLO it at a food festival. School may have already started back up, but lucky for y'all there's still plenty of hot summer weather left. Plenty of excuses to get out there and grab a cold treat... Just don't overdo it and remember to add your own cardio. ;-P
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