Burt & Rocky's Peppermint Ice Cream (Claremont)

[Pei]

I love The Village in Claremont. It's so quaint, so peaceful, and there's exactly one of everything. Burt & Rocky's would be the one ice cream shop-slash-candy store. It's toothachingly retro, with freshly dipped candy apples and jars of colorful candy everywhere.

But cutesiness aside, I go to Burt & Rocky's for one reason:

PEPPERMINT ICE CREAM

Their peppermint ice cream won a gold medal in 1997. Where? I forget, but I think the Pomona County fair (largest county fair in the country!).

One bite and I sighed "Oh, it tastes like Christmas." My friends who took a few bites shared the sentiment. The ice cream is Barbie doll pink, minty, and interspersed with small chunks of peppermint candy. The candy is crispy in the center but has sort of melted into a minty goo around the edges.

The ice cream itself is stabilizer free, meaning it has that creamy, full fat, traditional ice cream shop texture and melts so quickly you can barely keep it off your fingers (it was also 80 degrees outside--in November).

$2.20 for a "small" that looks more like a double scoop to me (compared with your average West side gelato shop or Ben & Jerry's, Rite Aid, etc.).

I'm working my way through a quart of Dr. Bob's Scharffen Berger Works due to recs on this board a few days ago, but I find myself longing for Burt & Rocky's both for flavor and texture. Dr. Bob's is good, but I really hate carageen in my ice cream.

And that peppermint...oh, it's to die for. If you like candy canes, thin mints, York peppermint patties, Andes mints, or dinner mints, you owe yourself a trip to Claremont.

[jackattack]

Are you sure Bert n Rockys has no stabilizers? I used to love their cream cheese chocolate chip, and their Pear Sorbet is fantastic...but my last 2 visits they didn't have these flavors and the ice cream texture wasn't like it used to be...had more of a dreyers-type consistency.

I'll definitely give them one more try however. They're in Upland too, near the highschool on Foothill. I've often done the old "Ice Cream Walk" from Bert n Rockys to Dr. Bobs and back....you can eat more ice cream when you walk off those calories!

Have you tried McConnell's Peppermint Stick Ice Cream? No stabilizers in THAT stuff, EVER! I noticed Dreyers has peppermint in the Supermarket for the holidays , along with Egg Nog and Pumpkin Ice Cream this year.

[Pei]

Where do I find McConnell's?

I'm not 100% sure about stabilizers in Burt & Rocky, but I tend to dislike the texture of carageen. Maybe they use another stabilizer that I tolerate better? It definitely didn't taste as fluffy to me as Dreyer's.

[chica]

McConnell's is available at Whole Foods, Gelsons. TJs has one or two varieties.

[jackattack]

Oh! Which TJ's has McConnells? My TJ's doesn't....or are you thinking of Double Rainbow?

[chica]

Oh forgive me if I did get it wrong. Yes, I know they carry a couple versions of Double Rainbow (I love that seasonal pumpkin!), rice and soy ice cream, beloved Trader Giotto's tiramisu/chocolate/vanilla gelato, and some Ben and Jerry's...

In any case, Whole Foods definitely has a lot of McConnell's!! :)