From the daily archives:

Friday, October 13, 2006

Pumpkin Ice Cream at York Castle Tropical Ice Cream; Silver Spring, MD

by Ice Cream Maker Reviews on October 13, 2006

One day, while browsing the ice cream books on Amazon.com I came across a book called East Coast Scoops. I’ll post a review of the book another day, but for today let me tell you about one of the ice cream shops in the Maryland section: York Castle Tropical Ice Cream.

York Castle Tropical Ice Cream is located in a small strip mall at the intersection of 16th and Georgia. I’ve driven past the location many times, but would have never guessed an ice cream shop was there without the book. It is easy to miss so be sure to keep your eye out for it. They have exotic tropical flavors like soursop, lychee, and passion fruit. They are also known for the Guinness ice cream. I sampled both the soursop and Guinness before settling on a fall special: pumpkin. The soursop and Guinness were both very good tasting—the Guinness surprised me with how intensely flavored it actually was. But, the pumpkin… The pumpkin was delicious. It was a cool, crisp, fall day and no other flavor could have matched the weather more perfectly. The pumpkin ice cream was extremely spicy (as in spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, not hot peppers). It was also very strongly pumpkin flavored. I may have to try to find a recipe online and make some pumpkin or squash ice cream. According to “East Coast Scoops” Tropical Ice Cream uses as little sugar as possible in their ice cream. You wouldn’t have known by taste of the ice cream. It was very soft and smooth. A little fluffier and less dense. York Castle also carries Jamaican jerk chicken and sodas, which I was too full to try after my ice cream. But, I can definitely say that I will be going back to have a full meal—chicken and ice cream very soon.

  • Flavor: 5
  • Flavor Intensity: 4.5
  • Texture: 4.5
  • Originality: 4.5
  • Cone: 4.5
  • Overall: 4.5

{ 2 comments }

My Apologies

by Ice Cream Maker Reviews on October 13, 2006

First off, thank you to those who have encouraged me to keep posting, even if it is less frequently. With grad school starting, I really have been extremely busy. And, ice cream is expensive. And I have class at night when I’d usually post. And, well, I’ll stop with the excuses. Ultimately though, I did decide to break in the “daily scoop” goal. I still have ice cream fairly frequently, but not everyday and not always a different flavor.

But, I will start posting my reviews again. I will post some reviews this weekend of flavors I’ve had in recent weeks. And on Monday I’ll post the second article about Breyers “Natural” Vanilla. It will be a taste test of Breyers with and without tara gum.

Thanks for remaining faithful readers.

{ 4 comments }