A Sweet Treat in New Baltimore

On my way back from the Sunrise Inn, I decided to stop in and check out a small ice cream stand that was recommended to me by a friend of mine. I had actually passed it before once or twice when I took my "alternate" way home from work, but had never bothered to stop. The New Baltimore Ice Cream shop is located at the corners of Pontius and Ravenna Roads. Now for those of you who might be unfamiliar with New Baltimore, I can simplify it even more. If you find the intersection of Routes 224 (E-W) & 44 (N-S) and go south just a few minutes, you'll run smack dab into the location. Easy peazy, no? Here is the view from the road:


The spring hours that were posted listed that they were open from noon until the evenings on most days. This shop was a walk up store where you ordered and paid for whatever you'd like at one window and then waited at the second window for your order to be made and delivered to you. The menu consisted of a few non-ice cream options like coney dogs and simple burgers, but I was here for the ice cream. They listed about eight flavors that were all homemade. The menu advertised for regular cones and waffle cones, but I needed something stable so that I'd be able to set it down in order to be able to take photos. So, I asked if I could get the scoops in a cup rather than a cone. No problem.

In the end, I picked three flavors: black cherry, pistachio nut, and blue moon. I paid my very reasonable $3.50 and walked over to the second window to wait for my order. I will warn you now, be careful how many scoops you order here as the servings are incredibly generous. What was handed to me in that second window really could've fed three people. Especially after eating at the Sunrise Inn. I took my tower of tastes over to the covered picnic bench area and started shooting photos:



The blue moon is in the bottom of the cup and wasn't truly visible until I started eating some of the black cherry and pistachio nut. Here's a better shot of the blue moon:


Ok, so now you've seen what it looks like, how about a description of the taste. All three ice creams shared the same rich creamy mouth feel. The black cherry actually had bits of real cherry in it and was by far my favorite. I actually made it a point of finishing that flavor. The black cherry flavor in this ice cream was completely over the top. In fact, it almost borderlined on being "too cherry" if such a thing exists. From start to finish with my tongue both normal and chilled, the flavor came through loud and clear.

The pistachio nut was a bit more muted than the black cherry, but still had a lovely flavor. The ice cream was studded with whole pistachio nuts which lent a very nice textural difference to the smooth and creamy ice cream.

The blue moon was my least favorite. When I asked what flavor "blue moon" was when ordering, the woman who took my order told me that it tasted like vanilla cake frosting. Actually, it didn't. At least not what I thought of when I taste actual vanilla cake frosting. With my taste buds numbed due to the cold, I actually missed the vanilla entirely and tasted more of an acidic note than anything else. To be fair, I stopped eating for about five minutes to let my taste buds return to normal and tried another spoonful. This time I got the slightest bit of vanilla flavor, but I really had to sit there and actively process what was going on in my mouth. Not to mention, the bold blue color of this ice cream makes me believe that this was a combination of ice cream base and a artificially flavored and/or colored syrup.

The black cherry was the big winner for me here today. The pistachio nut was good, but it just didn't have the boldness to match the black cherry. The blue moon I would skip if I went back as it just didn't have much of a distinct flavor. However, with five additional flavors that I didn't get to try today, I have many reasons to go back and try more.