Best ice cream in VT

[rizzo0904]

I figure with all of the dairy farms, VT must have some excellent ice cream. We will travel in via I89 to Burlington and then leave towards the south and out thru Rutland. Any recommendations? We will stop by Ben and Jerrys on the way.

[littlej]

While I guess these places are not on your way, I do know that Mountain Creamery in Woodstock and Chelsea Royal in Brattleboro both make their own ice cream.

[rizzo0904]

Wow, thanks for all of the responses!! We will definately hit Dakin Farm on our way out of town. And I was planning on the Boyden Winery on Day 1.

I will try to get some Wilcox ice cream at a store...do most grocery stores in the Burlington area carry it??

[TonyO]

Skip the ice cream at Boyde, it's Breyer's !

[jscott65]

If you are going to Rutland on your way down RT 7 stop at Dakin Farm in Ferrisburgh and have a maple cremee, they are made with their own maple syrup.

[nixienox]

Oh, and the Blue Benn is in Bennington VT.

[Scotchie]

City Markup is not the place to go in burlington at all, if you want wineries head north out past Jericho to Boyden Valley, one dollar gets you a taste of every singe lone of their handmade wines, and if you're nice they'll show you the basement with the fermentation tanks. It's just a really fun a beautiful place to go away from Burlington. I love it and all, but hit up Boyden keep heading south, to the Cold Hollow cider mill, down the road a bit is the Cabbot annex and the down the roab a bit more is the ben and Jerrys factory tour, which at the end you get free samples of possibly unreleased flavors, check out the flavor graveyard, sure to bring back some memories!

[nixienox]

I still remember the vanilla ice cream I had at the Blue Benn Diner as the finest I've had. It was made by a local dairy, I believe the name was Wilcox Dairy.

[GG Mora]

Yes, Wilcox Dairy makes very good ice cream, and they have a roadside stand at the farm. However, it's in Manchester and off the OP's travel route.

[dukegirl]

As of last summer, the roadside stand in Manchester is not selling Wilcox ice cream. There's a long-standing Wilcox family dispute and for some reason or another, the roadside stand stopped serving the Wilcox ice cream. You can still get Wilcox in stores and it is very yummy indeed.

[GG Mora]

Wow...wasn't aware of that. Thanks for the info.

Most of the ice cream consumed in our house is Wilcox (unless it's homemade). Their Sweet Cream flavor is the best delivery vehicle I know of for dessert sauces.

[dukegirl]

Sweet cream rocks. Bordeaux cherry also kicks butt.

[GG Mora]

We've been enjoying the Sweet Cream with homemade sour cherry conserve on top. : )

[cheflusk]

go to the magic hat brewery....they dont have ice cream though check the employee freezer

[TonyO]

For some reason (my guess is the "influence" of Ben and Jerry's), there are very few homemade ice cream stands in Vermont. We stopped at a farm in Cambridge that served ice cream, it was Breyer's. That being said, for my money, Lake Champlain Chocolate is by far, the best place for a cone or shake.

[kaszeta]

I've noticed this as well, a majority of the local ice cream stands that everyone tells me are "the greatest", most of them have a regional company's ice cream (Giffords, for example) for hard serve, and the soft serve pours into the machines in ready-mixed cartons.

[biggirlco]

I don't know if they have any retail setup but Strafford Organic Dairy has the best ice cream, I'm a big fan of the Maple and the Vanilla. You can get it at the City Market in downtown Burlington. Maple creemies are a joy too. Morse Farm just outside of Montpelier is pretty good spot for them.

[Susan627]

Second the vote for maple creemis at Morse Farm. Barely outside of Montpelier, and great maple syrup too!

[dukegirl]

Be on the look out for maple creemies (or creamies or creemees). It's essentially a soft serve ice cream made with maple syrup.

[rizzo0904]

I've never heard of a maple creemie...I'll have to give it a try. Thanks :)

[Blumie]

No reason to go to Ben & Jerry's in Stowe, unless you plan to go to the factory tour. There is a Ben & Jerry's shop on Church Street in Burlington.

[rizzo0904]

Yes, we are going to do the tour...and the one at Cabot. I think we'll try and hit a few other diary farms as well as wineries.

[Kygirl]

Last January, my family and I went on both the Ben and Jerry and the Cabot factory tour and thought the Cabot tour was much better. The cheese samples at Cabot were also much more generous than the ice cream at Ben & Jerry's. Can't beat their ice cream though. Make sure that Ben & Jerry's has a tour on the day you are going to go. They don't do tours on weekends.

[Morganna]

They do tours every day of the week, but the line isn't running on Sunday only. The line runs on Saturday so you can see them making the ice cream.