I had read about this place over a year ago when I was upstate doing a play near the Catskills. Due to circumstances beyond my control (mainly the lack of a car), I never made it out to Bellvale Creamery in Warwick, NY.
But this year was a different story and now I have been to what many call the best ice cream in
NY state. In addition to great ice cream made from the finest ingredients, Bellvale also lures visitors with majestic views of Mt. Peter.
When we pulled up, I don't remember being to an ice cream shop with such beautiful scenery since I was in Maine. I was excited to see all the people enjoying their ice cream overlooking the beautiful Warwick Valley. I was even more excited to join them.
The line wasn't too long when we arrived so we were able to taste a few options. The store was cute with some plastic cows hanging around for scenery and the smell of fresh waffle cones wafting in the air for the most effective up-sell technique possible. They featured both standard homemade flavors and then homemade specialty flavors which had semi-creative names such as, Bellvale Bog (chocolate with browines and fudge), Great White Way (white chocolate with dark chocolate chunks and raspberry swirl), and Black Dirt Blast (chocolate coffee with fudge and toffee).
We tasted a number of the flavors and they were all creamy and seemed really delicious. They all had some sort of add-in, which always makes me wonder if they were covering up for the lack of flavor in the actual ice cream. Even their standard coffee had chocolate covered "espresso" beans (I'll explain those quotations in a bit) mixed in. I felt a little like a kid in a candy shop with all the flavors featuring candy bar pieces and whatnot.
I settled on the Great White Way and After Dinner Mint. I would have ordered coffee, but my friend beat me to it and I never like to have the same two flavors at the table (or picnic table, in this case).
We got a picnic bench just outside and enjoyed watching all the families and couples. I was probably the only one being so critical, but I expect great ice cream every time - especially when a place is hailed as "the best." So here goes...
I will say the mouth feel across the board was very rich and creamy. The problems I had were with all the additives. The coffee tasted strong and fresh at first but the more we ate, we noticed an artificial, almost medicinal quality. I'm guessing if there is real coffee in the ice cream, it's mixed with a concentrated coffee flavor. Also, we discovered that those chocolate covered "espresso" beans were not espresso beans at all, but some crunchy chocolate coffee candy pieces. They were delicious as most sugary candy is, but a bit of a disappointment.
I had a similar problem with the After
Dinner Mint. It really tasted like those cheap mints you get on your way out of a diner - a bit reminiscent of toothpaste. And then those crunchy mint pieces seemed to be just that. It was a bit off-putting to discover that those candy pieces dyed the ice cream pink and green. It was advertised as containing chocolate covered mint pieces - but I should have stopped to ask myself just what are mint pieces??? Do they exist in the real world? Think about it: mint pieces?!?
The Great White Way fared better with the raspberry swirl and the chocolate chunks. The flavor combination was pretty classic and the white chocolate ice cream was properly richer than a vanilla.
The waffle cones, I must admit, were excellent and made it difficult to stop eating the ice cream since I really wanted to get to that fresh baked goodness.
I guess I'm a bit of an ice cream purist - and definitely an ice cream snob. The view was beautiful and the experience of getting ice cream up on top of a mountain was thrilling. But Bellvale's ice cream was mediocre. It's clear that they use really fresh dairy products and it shows in the texture, but the ice cream chef really needs to re-think the flavors - especially if he's trying to appeal to adults as well as children.
But then again, what do I know, because as we left, the line was out the door. I guess some people still like their ice cream loaded with candy. And can I really blame them for that?
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