If one thing is clear — it’s that Pennsylvanians love their ice cream.
But what flavor reigns supreme?
The folks at the gaming news site PennStakes.com went in search of answers, plumbing Pennsylvanians’ palates — and the data — to come up with your top five favorite flavors.
And, yep, it’s vanilla all the way in the top spot.
“As is true in most of America, Pennsylvanians like their vanilla. They like it so much Pennsylvania is something of an American hotbed for high-end vanilla extract makers,” PennStakes’ Howard Gensler wrote.
The rest of the top 5 is rounded out by cookies and cream, chocolate, strawberry, and mint chocolate chip, according to the gaming site’s analysis.
Chocolate, Gensler offered ” … really should be first because vanilla is only delicious when chocolate – syrup, chips, M&Ms – is added to it. Chocolate stands on its own. But as Pennsylvania is also home to [Hershey] and numerous other fine chocolate-makers, maybe the state is just a little chocolate’d out.”
The analysis also is sprinkled (pardon the pun) with tidbits about the storied history of the state’s ice cream industry, including the scoop that “William Breyer sold his own ice cream out of a wagon in Philadelphia starting in 1866.
“Breyers became incorporated in 1908. For decades it was advertised as an all-natural ice cream with only a handful of simple ingredients,” Gensler wrote. “Then Kraft, who purchased the brand in 1926, sold it to Unilever in 1993 and Unilever turned it into a chemistry set.”
(VisitPA photo)
And if you haven’t done so already, you can hit the road this summer on Pennsylvania’s annual Ice Cream Trail to sample the best iterations of all 5 flavors — and presumably many, many more — for yourself.
Even better, if you rack up 600 points on the trail’s mobile app (each ice cream shop check-in is worth 100 points) by Sept. 1, you’ll also nab yourself a commemorative stainless-steel ice cream scooper.
You can find a full list of the participating creameries here. Participating cardiologists are likely a matter between you and your insurance carrier, however.
The creameries include: Bailys Dairy of Pocopson Meadow Farm in West Chester, Pa.; Betsy’s Ice Cream, of Mt. Lebanon, Pa.; Destiny Dairy Bar at Stover Farms, in Carlisle, Pa.; Hall’s Ice Cream, in Millerstown, Pa.; Keatings Ice Cream, in Lake Ariel, Pa, and Manning Farm Dairy, of Dalton, Pa.
With that in mind — the summer isn’t getting any longer. And ice cream does melt — you’d better hit the trail.
Who knows? I might even see you out there. A moose tracks cone in hand.
Come say hi if you do.
Originally published at www.penncapital-star.com,by John L. Micek
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