Stop 4: Lizzy's - June 26, 2009

Overall we felt Lizzy's was okay. Andrea tried the coconut ice cream, which had actual shredded coconut in it - a plus in the texture category. She also reported she liked the flavor. Allison got coffee oreo frozen yogurt, which she thought was average. It had a lot of oreo chunks, though, which is another plus in the texture category.

I had the Maddog Mango Sherbet, which is basically mango sherbet with cayenne. It was an interesting combination. At first I thought the sweet and spicy worked, but then it was just overwhelmingly spicy and kind of gross. I felt nauseous after eating a small amount and had to eat something else to get the taste out of my mouth. I can handle the heat, but it just didn't work with the mango. Had there been less cayenne it could have been a good flavor.

There were also other problems. The consistency was inconsistent. There were icy parts and syrupy parts. The flavoring was also inconsistent. Parts were really spicy and parts weren't very spicy at all. Overall I'd give this flavor a 3/10. As for price, it wasn't as good a value as Toscanini's. I paid about $3.60 for a kiddie, which was about 1/2 cup of ice cream.

I've had other flavors from Lizzy's and had a better experience. Both times the ice cream had been pretty creamy and mixed properly. They have some unique flavors, which is a plus, but they could work on flavor strength and distribution.

Stop 3: Toscanini's - June 16, 2009

The clouds finally parted and we were blessed with bright sunshine for our Toscanini's outing. Allison and I tried a sample of our elected signature flavor, Vanilla. More specifically, French Vanilla. It tasted like French Vanilla to me - creamy, lots of vanilla flavor. I need to try other vanillas for comparison, but I'd say it currently ranks as 7/10.

We each decided on unique, Toscanini flavors for our main snack: Vienna finger cookie for me, Orange butter flake for Andrea, and Ginger snap molasses for Allison.

My thoughts on Vienna finger cookie: It was a nice combination. You don't often find vanilla-flavored cookies in vanilla ice cream. The ratio of cookie to ice cream was a bit much, probably about 70/30. I think it would have been better as 40/60 - more ice cream, less cookie. Don't get me wrong, I loved the full-sized cookie pieces, but the bottom of my ice cream was all cookie, not ice cream. Overall I'd give this flavor 7/10.

I tried a little of the other flavors. Orange butter flake was super rich and just like eating an orange truffle. Mmmmm. I'm not a huge fan of ginger, but ginger snap molasses was okay. Very rich with a strong gingerbread flavor.

Stop 2: The Scooper Bowl - June 10, 2009

Andrea, Rich and I arrived at the Scooper Bowl in City Hall Plaza around 5pm. It was perfect weather - cool and cloudy, which kept crowds away. There were people milling about, but no lines. For $8 we each got all you can eat ice cream from about 10 different places. Here's the scoop on what I had:

Baskin-Robbins:
- Premium Churned Light Raspberry Chip - This was definitely not the best raspberry chip I've ever had. In fact it was one of the worst with little raspberry flavor, few chips, and fairly mild tasting chocolate. 3/10
- Rock n' Pop Swirl - I couldn't resist trying some of this neon green colored ice cream that was infused with multi-colored pop rocks. It tasted as I expected - gross. 1/10

Ben & Jerry's:
- Oatmeal Cookie Chunk - I tasted some of Rich's dish and it was amazing. Exactly like eating a very rich oatmeal cookie. 8/10
- Chocolate Macadamia - This was a vanilla/chocolate swirl ice cream with chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. It was pretty good, but the base wasn't as creamy as other flavors. 6/10
-Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road - This consisted of chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, brickle candy pieces, and white chocolate chunks. The components were all quite big so I only was able to eat one thing at a time. The combination was kind of weird too. It was okay, but not my favorite. I think Elton John would have preferred the oatmeal cookie. 6/10

Brigham's Ice Cream:
-Confetti & Cream - I just had a few spoonfuls of this. It consisted of a vanilla base with multi-colored sugar candies and tasted quite sweet, as expected. It wasn't too bad. It could have been grosser. 5/10
-Cookies n' Cream - I had a few spoonfuls of Rich's ice cream. It had a very creamy base and a lot of cookies pieces. Pretty good. 7/10

Edy's:
-Take the Cake - I had a few spoonfuls of this and it tasted like cake frosting mixed into ice cream. I think it was a cake batter base. Out of all the rainbow-colored, sugary ice creams I tried, this was the best. It wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. 6/10
-Orange Sherbet - This was one of my favorites from the event. Very creamy and not too sugary so you didn't get a gross aftertaste. 8/10

Garelick Farms/Giffords:
-Maine Lobster Tracks - I thought this would be moose tracks with a different name, however it was different. It was a vanilla base with chocolate ripples that tasted like cadbury chocolate flakes. That was an improvement on the usual chocolate fudge swirls. Instead of peanut butter cups it had bright red caramel cups. I think I prefer the peanut butter cups, but the red color was a nice touch. 7/10

Haagen-Dazs:
Bailey's Irish Cream - As expected, this was nice and creamy with a rich flavor. 8/10

HP Hood:
Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt - This had realistic strawberry and banana flavors and wasn't too sweet. It was also fairly creamy. I was impressed. 7/10
Cookie Dough Delight - I tried a few spoonfuls of Rich's ice cream. We both agreed that the cookie dough had a nice flavor, but that the vanilla base was a little icy and not very flavorful. 6/10

Spasso:
Hazelnut gelato - It was creamy, as gelato should be, and the strength of the hazelnut flavor was good, but it has a chalky taste. 4/10

Stop 1: Damons - June 5, 2009

This trip to Damons was pretty normal. They didn't have the variety of toppings they usually do, however they had a greater quantity of the toppings that were there. They also had more nuts than usual and the large, chocolate-covered raisins. Andrea and I both saw a man eating froyo covered in fudge so we gave it a try. Soft serve froyo isn't the best base for fudge because it melts easily, but the fudge was really good. A little bittersweet, which contrasted nicely with the sweet froyo. I also had some chocolate-covered raisins and strawberries on my foryo and the fudge actually sat on top of the strawberries and didn't melt the froyo - a nice surprise. With the discovery of the good fudge, I'd rate this visit 8/10.

the tour has begun!

The official tour of ice cream shops within a 3 mile radius of MIT has begun! We will be posting our reactions to each shop all summer long as we progress through the tour.