I'm back! And I bring you ice cream

Dearest readers, I have been shamefully MIA recently-- the last few weeks were a bit rough both health-wise and work-wise, but I'm slowly getting back on track and should be back with reports on the four meals currently sitting in my camera very soon. But in the meantime, I bring you a brief report on the Best Ice Cream I've Had In A Long, Long Time.

I eat ice cream relatively frequently, but usually when I have it I go for frozen yogurt or light ice cream or some watered-down version of the real thing. But every now and then, I get a taste of the true life-- not sorbet, sherbet, granita, or even gelato (which is delicious, don't get me wrong, just not as rich as ice cream), but real, true, honest-to-goodness ice cream. And it's like when you've switched completely to diet soda and then have a sip of full-sugar Sprite-- it tastes impossibly rich and sweet and decadent. Anyway, this past weekend, when AV and I escaped the city for a quick weekend away in Western Massachusetts, I tasted the Best Ice Cream, certainly in a Long, Long Time, but possibly Ever.

It was at the SoCo Creamery in Great Barrington, a place I've been to many, many times throughout my life, even when it was called Bev's in its previous incarnation several years ago. We went after dinner on Saturday night (report on that to come...), and I got my usual soft serve twist with rainbow sprinkles, while AV got a cup of cookies & cream with sprinkles. I tried a taste of his ice cream. Fast forward 16 hours and we were there again, eating ice cream in the middle of the day in an effort to stem the rising out-of-control yearning I had for that cookies & cream. Sitting there, with my own small cup of the black and white ambrosia, I savored each indulgent spoonful. The cream was unbelieveably creamy-- like sticking your tongue directly into a bucket of fresh cream, much creamier even than whipped cream, which I eat regularly. And the big chunks of cookies were judiciously scattered about, taking a suitable backseat to the pure canvas of the cream. I didn't even bother with sprinkles.

Pure beauty

SoCo Creamery
5 Railroad Street, Great Barrington
413-528-9420