I survived Maine....

This is one of those days that I'm glad to be an ice cream reviewer...well, more so than usual anyway. An old friend invited us up to York beach, and after spending some quality time with the sand, we got a quick tour of the town. We hadn't had lunch, so it was time for an early afternoon ice cream break to tide us over until dinner.

Being a beach, there are several local ice cream hot spots, but since it is Sunday and post-Labor day, half the places we're closed. What was open, is the well known Brown's Old Fashioned Ice Cream. Brown's started serving home made ice cream in 1967, but after years of satisfied customers, the owner decided to shut down. Luckily, Steve Dunne decided to keep things going in 1991 and leases the stand to this day. The only real difference is they now serve Shain's of Maine ice cream. I've heard very good things about Shain's and now I know why.

I was looking over the menu trying to find something different, something new, and boy did I. They had a flavor called "Maine Survivor" billed as a vanilla ice cream with a fudge swirl, chocolate chip cookie pieces and peanuts. Now, think about what that might look like. I was picturing a thin fudge swirl and maybe some cookie pieces that were the same size as the peanuts. Boy was I wrong!

What was handed to me was the largest "small" I had ever seen. It was enormous. Plus, there were no little cookie chunks. No No No. They shove gigantic chocolate chip cookies into this ice cream plus giant slices of fudge. Oh, I so regret not taking a picture. It was absolutely fantastic. The ice cream to cookie ratio was probably 1:1, maybe even lower. Fantastic. I thought about it the whole way home it was so good.

I give Shain's major points for originality on this one. I would never have thought to shove a super fresh, giant cookie into the ice cream mixer. Oh, it came together great. Mmmmmm. I know my trusted adviser picks up containers of Shain's now and then, and if I ever see it in a store, I know which one I'm getting. I forgot how much I love cookies and ice cream together.

Side note: My daughter wanted blue ice cream (Cotton Candy from two weeks ago), but settled for Chocolate. My wife tried Razzle Dazzle. It's a vanilla ice cream with a raspberry swirl and raspberry filled chocolate pieces. She liked it, but she wasn't dazzled.

2015 Update: Brown's is being sold. The person who was leasing the facility has opened up Dunne's Ice Cream just down the road. I'm guessing they'll still be serving Shain's ice cream.