A cup of sweet ice cream is a favorite dessert for most of us, but, if you’re adventurous, you might be bored of the standard choices. As delicious as vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry can be, there is a wide variety of other flavors out there to try. From black sesame and fig and walnut to Jamaican rum raisin and banana bread, there’s a kooky scoop waiting for you at one of these 10 cool Westchester spots.
Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream
19 N Salem Rd, Cross River; 203.788.8099
The unexpected, wacky flavors at this Cross River establishment will send your taste buds soaring. The ice cream is made in small batches from all-natural ingredients made on the premises and, with the exception of everyday flavors, there’s a list of more than 50 interesting seasonal favorites that rotate throughout the year. Notable summer flavors include Grasshopper (mint ice cream with chocolate covered mint cookies), Lemon Cookie (lemon ice cream with pieces of vanilla cookies), Cross River Craziness (homemade fudge, caramel and brownies mixed into a sweet cream), Captain Lawrence Stout (made with double espresso chocolate stout from Captain Lawrence Brewery), Almond Macaroon, and Strawberries & Nata (made with organic strawberries, and nata is Spanish for whipped cream). Bluebird is also a coffeehouse, serving Stumptown coffee regularly in a La Marzocco espresso machine, which was handmade in Florence. There is also an assortment of delicious organic cakes and baked goods.
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The Blue Pig
121 Maple St, Croton-on-Hudson; 914.271.3850
At The Blue Pig, the dairy, seasonal fruit, fresh herbs, coffee, and spices are sourced from local farms and even the shop’s own rooftop garden. A farm-to-table ice cream place in its own right, much of the herbs and berries come from the owner’s small farm in Vermont. The result: pure, distinct notes in every spoonful. With rotating flavors, this scoop shop makes some of the most attention-grabbing options around. Swing by for a taste of peanut butter Oreo ice cream or strawberry Zinfandel sorbet with Zinfandel wine. If you’re looking for even wackier flavors, the shop (at least in mid-July) is serving vanilla with lavender notes, as well as balsamic roasted strawberries and garden chip mint.
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Bona Bona Ice Cream
10 Westchester Ave, Port Chester; 914.481.5712
71 US-6, Baldwin Pl, Somers; 914.600.3004
This Port Chester (and now Somers area!) gem makes ice cream in small batches with quality ingredients, and the effort shines through. It’s easy to get your wacky ice cream here, with out-of-the-ordinary flavors like golden kiwi or holy cannoli (homemade ricotta ice cream base with crunchy cannoli shells, chunks of dark chocolate, and roasted pistachios), in addition to a raspberry cheesecake. Don’t forget to top your treat off with torched homemade Italian meringue!
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Cloud 9 Semifreddo
407 Main St, Armonk; 914.273.1766
While semifreddo is not exactly ice cream, this Italian treat is sold in gelato-shaped containers and is light, airy, cold, creamy, and sweet, so we think it deserves a spot on this list. Meaning “half-frozen,” semifreddo is like a marriage between ice cream and mousse, made by churning air into a whipped cream mixture while it freezes. The county-based company just launched and is available exclusively at La Mer, a seafood, provisions, and catering shop in Armonk. Containing dairy, raw egg, and nuts, the chocolate hazelnut semifreddo with dark chocolate stracciatella and dark chocolate rice pearls is not only a party in your mouth with mingling flavors and textures, it’s also gluten-free.
Ice Cream Factory
408 E Sandford Blvd, Mt. Vernon; 914.699.1349
Ice Cream Factory prides itself on its Caribbean-inspired choices, like Jamaican rum raisin and soursop, but the signature scoop at this Mt. Vernon mainstay is the “Grape-Nutt,” which comes in a variety of flavors such as pistachio, eggnog, and peach, along with soy-free and sugar-free versions. The shop also has a selection of other flavors such as coconut, Irish moss, and stout.
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Lost Borough Ice Cream
40 N Broadway, Yonkers; 914.810.4604
One of the things that makes Lost Borough Ice Cream unique is its commitment to culturally inspired ice cream flavors. The menu includes summer flavors like blueberry granita, blackberry sorbet and pink cookies and cream. Owners Patrick Cruz and Ka-Wana Jefferson recommend trying “off-the-menu” flavors such as La Dominicana, an ice cream float using Dominican vanilla ice cream and a malta beverage (a nonalcoholic malt drink from unfermented barley and hops, popular in the Caribbean and some South American countries). And the taro boba milkshake has taro (Southeast Asian root vegetable), ice cream, and boba pearls.
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Main Street Sweets
35 Main St, Tarrytown; 914.332.5757
If it’s quality, homemade ice cream in wacky flavors you desire, look no further than this family-owned shop in Tarrytown. It has gravitated well beyond simple vanilla and chocolate toward drool-inducing concoctions like espresso nugget (strong coffee ice cream with chocolate-covered espresso candy mixed in), Devin’s Dream (vanilla ice cream, Reese’s Pieces, white chocolate, chocolate-covered almonds, and Heath Bar), and even a mouthwatering creamy pomegranate flavor.
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Mimi’s Gelato by Martine’s Fine Bake Shoppe
51 East Pkwy A, Scarsdale; 914.881.1144
Step inside Mimi’s Gelato to make your day’s most delightful decision: Which swirling mountain of exquisite mouthfeel perfection will you choose? There’s the dramatic drizzle of black sour cherries, their drips mingling with dark chocolate strands cloaking the sweet cream in the amarena stracciatella. Then there’s the marshmallow cloud flavor, which, despite its playful presentation, tastes as ethereal as its name — airy, not cloying, with a blue hue that comes from spirulina. The shop’s most recent flavors include a juicy, creamy piña colada with rum, as well as cookies and cream and a mixed berry sorbet.
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Related: Where to Go When You Want Ice Cream and a Meal in Westchester
