Happy National Ice Cream Day! Sunday, July 17, is National Ice Cream Day and I spent this weekend in Toms River checking out what's new with local and national ice cream makers at the 9th Annual New Jersey State Ice Cream Festival.
Ice cream makers converged in downtown Toms River to compete for titles of "Best Local Ice Cream," "Best National Ice Cream," and "Best Ice Cream Overall." Tasting kits and voting ballots were distributed to all ice cream lovers! Here are the flavors I tasted:
· Zita's Homemade: Mint Lightening
· Cranford Vanilla Bean Creamery: Bananas Foster
· Welsh Farms: Oreos & Cream
· Stop & Shop: Mint Chocolate Chip
· Gifford's: Chocolate Lovers Chocolate
· Kemps: Maine Blueberry
· Faji's Homemade: Doughlicious
· Mrs. Walker's of Beachwood: Oreo
· Friendly's: Black Raspberry
· Hoffman's: Coffee Oreo
My vote went to Zita's Homemade: Mint Lightening. It mixed mint chocolate chip ice cream with fudge brownie. I rate this flavor five out of five ice cream cones.
The people have spoken and here are the winners:
Local
1st Cranford Vanilla Bean Creamery ~ Bananas Foster ice cream
2nd Hoffman’s Ice Cream of Pt. Pleasant Beach & Spring Lake ~ Coffee Oreo ice cream
3rd Mrs. Walker's of Beachwood ~ Oreo ice cream
National:
1st Kemp’s Ice Cream ~ Maine Blueberry
2nd Gifford’s Ice Cream ~ Chocolate Lovers Chocolate
3rd Welsh Farms Ice Cream ~ Oreos & Cream
Although my pick was not the majority for first place, I still had an amazing time tasting different flavors, meeting the Miss New Jersey State Dairy Princess, and watching ice cream eating contests! Visit http://www.downtowntomsariver.com/icecream/winners.htm to see more. Below are some of my photos from the day. Happy Ice Cream Day!
