Nominations for Tour de Soft Serve 4.0

Almost without fail, the FUSSYlittleBLOG has organized a tour every quarter for the past several years. However, summer is coming to a close, and there hasn’t been a peep from the Profussor about one.

That changes today.

Summer is the time for ice cream. We’ve been almost everywhere, and tasted almost everything. But there is still a corner of the Capital Region where we have yet to venture. Maybe some of you have been around for awhile remember the failed attempt to sample Schenectady soft serve?

As a quick refresher, as we approached the tour, Dairy Circus had a fire and burned down. Since it was one of the area’s pillars for soft serve, and there was some hope it might reopen, the Tour de Soft Serve: Schenectady was put on hold.

Now that the institution has reopened, and it has been over two years since the last Tour de Soft Serve, it’s time to put this tour back on the books. But as always, before heading out, we open the floor the nominations.

First thing is first. Save the date. Saturday, August 25.

It’s a week from tomorrow. I know. Summer has kind of gotten away from me. But dammit, we’re going to make it happen before the season is over. And hopefully it won’t be so hot that our soft serve will start melting on the spot. It would be nice to be able to snap a picture of the stuff, before it disintegrates into a puddle.

The funny thing is that we’ve done this nomination process for Schenectady before.

But the blog always has new readers, and the soft serve landscape can change. It’s possible that there are still places worth visiting that are off the radar, and that’s a big part of this exercise.

Our rule is each tour is limited to five spots. My top choices for this outing are:

Dairy Circus
Bumpy’s Polar Freeze
Jumpin’ Jacks
Curry Freeze
The Grandstand

Big Scoop was originally on the list, but that is now closed.

Cocobar has opened right in downtown, and while it’s primarily a chocolate spot, they also sell soft serve. This is a strong contender for the tour, but the question is which place on the top five should fall off to make room for it?

Poppy’s is another place to consider. However it doesn’t seem like it has that many fans online. I’ve never been. We’re looking to find the best soft serve out there. Thankfully the point of these excursions isn’t to be exhaustive. But perhaps someone out there finds it to be delightful. I’d love to hear from you.

There is also Corner Ice Cream Store on Carman Road. It’s newer, and not so charming. Still, we haven’t seen modern places do well in these evaluations, but perhaps this strip mall location is a bit too far afield.

There is also The Ice Cream Shop on Route 5 right before Balltown Road. This place is special because it also has frozen custard in addition to the soft serve. But we need to compare likes against likes for this tour, so the custard would be off limits for the sake of the evaluation. Still, the hard core tasters couldn treat themselves to an unscored sixth serving of something.

Choices. They aren’t easy. Which is why I’m opening up the floor to nominations.

Here’s the important thing. This isn’t a democracy. Nominations are just suggestions. As such, it’s less about how many people chime in to support a business. It’s more about the strength of the case people make about why a spot should be in the top five, and which place should be taken off the list to make space.

Thanks for your thoughtful consideration. Hopefully some of you will be able to make the tour as well. The official announcement as to the time and the starting place will be next week. So if you want to take this weekend to sample some soft serve before weighing in with your nomination, that would totally be fine.

Have a great weekend!