When it heats up, there is always a cold frozen treat that can take the edge off summer’s dog days.
Even with rising prices and calorie conscious customers, ice cream is one of the top desserts in summertime. West New York resident Eneida Torres, the assistant manager of the Cold Stone Creamery in Hoboken, said last week that coffee, cake batter, and sweet cream are big this year with adult customers.
But cotton candy is biggest with the kids.
The popular chain eatery, which specializes in smashing desserts into its various flavors, also offers frozen drinks and smoothies. The most popular shake is the “Cake and Shake” (cake batter ice cream and yellow cake with milk and sweet cream) and for smoothies, it’s the strawberry mango.
But Torres’ personal favorite flavors are coconut and traditional vanilla.
She says that every night at 7 p.m., the lines are out the door, but mostly it’s couples.
“It’s mostly a date spot; it’s really nice,” says Torres, who says that many of them start entire conversations over the personalized ingredients.
Dairy Queen
Were the Dairy Queen and the Burger King really involved in hanky panky, as rumored in a childhood joke? No matter. Children outside of North Bergen’s Dairy Queen, located at 6903 Kennedy Blvd., got some relief from the heat recently with cool refreshments.
Angel Coreero said that chocolate chip mint was his favorite flavor, while Frank Diaz said that he preferred Dairy Queen’s “Green Slushy” drink because it was sour.
The heat was a reason why Idallis Maldonado bought a scoop of chocolate ice cream.
Costumers were satisfied with their icy treats as the heat wave gave them little other refuge from the sun.
Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s has local shops in Hoboken and West New York. Last week, Hoboken resident Ranier Martini said he has a particular soft spot for Cherry Garcia, which happens to be the company’s most popular flavor.
Available in both frozen yogurt and regular ice cream, it’s flavored like cherry with little chocolate flakes.
“I’m normally not an ice cream fan,” says Martini, who prefers drinking coffee and only indulges in ice cream “when it gets too hot.”
Seven-year-old twins Olivia and Aidan Halstead enjoyed the Ben & Jerry’s shop at 405 Washington St. in Hoboken. Both are sweet on the cookie dough flavor. Olivia is also big on vanilla ice cream with sprinkles – the rainbow and chocolate combo – and like mom Caroline, she loves lemon sorbet.
Olivia said, “I enjoy it like every day of the earth.”
Local ice cream shop specialties
Nefty Arzola, day manager at Hoboken’s Ben & Jerry’s, said, “A lot of the kids like simple stuff like cookies and cream and, they like vanilla, chocolate. The older kids, they like cake batter, brownie cheesecake, Imagine Whirled Peace, which is inspired by John Lennon. A lot of college kids get shakes. Chocolate Therapy is pretty popular.”
Arzola says his personal favorite is Imagine Whirled Peace, which is caramel-sweetened ice cream with swirled pieces of fudge and toffee cookie.
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