Shortly after stumbling upon a previously unknown-to-me 2nd Street Creamery stash hiding at a convenient store about 30 minutes away, I uncovered even more pints from the budding ice cream company much closer to home. While getting gas mere miles from my house, I ran in to grab a few things when I saw yet another freezer featuring flavors I hadn’t seen anywhere before. I passed on their Marry Me Chocolate (base-only all natural chocolate ice cream), but I took full advantage of the opportunity to scoop some of their Limerick Cherry Chocolate.
This dark sweet cherry ice cream with cherries and chocolate chunks should serve as some serious competition to both Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia and Graeter’s Black Cherry Chocolate Chip. Here’s 2nd Street’s story of exactly how this flavor came to fruition, “Know any good limericks? We heard one that combines cherries and chocolate in good taste. “There once was a maiden from France…” Here’s the story behind the flavor: Fighting boredom on long car rides, my husband and I made up limericks. Someone came up with a line – no matter how ridiculous – and the other had to make up the rest of the limerick. I was sharing this story with one of my fellow craftsmen and they thought it was hilarious. So I tossed out a line that started like this: “There once was a maiden from France….” And here is where we went: Who mixed cherries and chocolate by chance. And to her delight She mixed it just right! And all the gents asked her to dance. It takes a 2nd Street craftsman to take something as silly as a limerick down an ice cream path. What we ended up with is a pretty fun limerick and an outrageously delicious ice cream.”
With the top taken off, the first layer of this 250 calorie per serving, super-premium ice cream is mauve in color and shows off plenty of the included chocolate chips and even a bit of the bright purple cherries poking through the top. Up to this point, 2nd Street Creamery takes the cake for including the most mix-ins in their ice cream, so I’m interested to see the cherries and chocolate hiding below the surface. As I scrape my spoon through the mauve colored base to gather my first bite, I find it nearly impossible to avoid the influx of chocolate chips. My first taste of the dark sweet cherry ice cream is better than I had been expecting. 2nd Street has made their cherry base much sweeter than most, and coupled with the top-notch consistency, provides a unique foundation for this flavor.
One of the mix-ins, the chocolate chunks, are kept small in size, but compliment the dark sweet cherry ice cream nicely. These tiny bits of fudge add a little crunch on the front end, as well as a rich chocolate finish to each bite. The big pieces of deep purple cherries add even more texture and enhance the taste of the base ice cream by building on the sweet flavors. Even though cherry ice cream and chocolate chunks have been tried countless times, 2nd Street’s Limerick Cherry Chocolate is yet another option that leaves Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia begging for mercy.
Where I Found It: The Market Center (Gas Station)
Grade: B
