Tour de Hard Ice Cream

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Please be advised: The date of the Tour de Hard Ice Cream has changed. It’s now Saturday, May 26.
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Like the Tour de Cider Donut, this might actually need to be split up over multiple rounds. But I’ve finally wrapped my head around all your nominations and have done a little bit of soul searching, and I’m proud to announce the itinerary for the Tour de Hard Ice Cream.

The soul searching involved Stewart’s. For those who live outside of the area, this is our locally based chain of convenience stores. We don’t have 7-11 out here or the Circle-K. We have Stewart’s. And they are known for a small handful of good products at a fair price, one of which is their ice cream. Some will claim they have “The World’s Best Vanilla.” But they don’t, though.

Theirs is an industrial produced product made in mega-batches and distributed through the region. It’s not going to be as good as some of the other smaller ice cream stands that make their own product by hand. But Stewart’s is also a regional benchmark. Much like how I fully expected Kurver Kreme to flame out in the Tour de Soft Serve, they had to be included, because a Tour without Kurver was no tour at all.

But ultimately this is not about hard ice cream as a commodity. It’s about the individuality expressed at each of the ice cream stands on the tour; and this can be tasted in the hard ice cream they make by themselves.

Now let me tell you what I’ve got planned.

Before you say, “Holy shit, that’s a lot of driving,” allow me to provide a bit of context from previous tours.

Making five stops over the course of a day to eat even what seems like a modest treat, can be quite a physical challenge. Two mini hot-dogs seem inconsequential. Ten mini hot-dogs almost killed me. The same holds true with cider donuts. And I don’t even want to think about the cupcakes.

Having some time to drive between destinations is a blessing. It’s a forced break that allows your body to do the hard work of preventing you from slipping into a sugar coma. Tours with a tighter geographical footprint are brutal, because the breaks between eating occasions is significantly shorter.

This tour will also be a good warm up for fall when we head back to Saratoga County for our third round of cider donuts.

At 11:00 a.m. sharp on Saturday, May 19 May 26, the Tour de Hard Ice Cream will commence at The Farmer’s Daughters’ Drive In.  Even though this place wasn’t on my radar, it had some vocal proponents, and just happens to be very close to the spot that drew us up north in the first place, The Ice Cream Man. As people gather, I’ll hand out score sheets for those who want to be counted in the final tally of the day. That’s right, you can come and just hang out and eat some ice cream. But if you want to judge, you’ll have to follow a pretty strict set of rules. More on those in a bit.

After The Farmer’s Daughters’ Drive In, we’ll all take off for The Ice Cream Man. These first two stops really make up the lunch portion of the tour.

Google says it’s a 34-minute drive down Route 40 from The Ice Cream Man to The Snowman in Lansingburgh. We’ll see about that. But coming out of nominations, The Snowman seems to be the favorite going in.

What was surprising was to see all the support for Mac’s Drive In, as this place was completely off my radar. So after The Snowman, we’re crossing the river and heading to Watervliet. I’m quite excited.

From there we conclude the tour at Moxie’s. After finishing your fifth ice cream of the day, you can then collapse in a swing or take a nap on the grass. Those intrepid souls who have an ice cream capacity greater than my own can take on Moxie’s world tour of vanilla ice cream. But I’m going to pass.

Albany, Schenectady and Glenmont all get jilted this time despite the significant support for Scoups, Twist, and Curry Freeze. And as you’ve noticed, there is no stop at Stewart’s.

The map of the day can be found here.

The tour is open to everyone and anyone. All you need is your appetite and transportation. All I’ll be providing is the map above, score sheets, and some color commentary. So I guess that means you also need money for ice cream and a pen.

Please, please let me know if you are coming so I can make sure to have enough score sheets for everyone, and try to make sure we don’t leave anyone behind.

I’m going to call ahead the day before to try and get flavor lists from the shops on the tour. That way when we meet at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 19 May 26 we should have a good sense of the common denominators. Likely they will be simple flavors like strawberry, vanilla, chocolate and coffee. But all of these are important.

For your score sheet to count in the final evaluation, you must taste and completely score all five locations. You must also in good faith try to keep your order consistent at each establishment. If you take a topping, you’ll need to take that same topping everywhere. So choose wisely.

This is a kid friendly tour. So if you’ve got ‘em, and you want to bring ‘em, go for it. Let me know if they want their very own scoresheet, and I’ll bring one for them too. Please be advised, scoring by minors is for entertainment purposes only. The final tally will include only those scoresheets completed by adults.

I hope you can make it. The above may make it sound a bit intense, but these have been a lot of fun. It is why I continue to do them, and presumably why they have continued to grow. Some future tours may need to have restricted attendance, but these ice cream shops are more than equipped to handle our volume.

Saturday, May 19 May 26 we eat ice cream. Lots and lots of ice cream. And we will try to settle the question of who makes the best hard ice cream north of Albany. I look forward to seeing you there. Again, just let me know if you are coming.