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Ice cream comes in enough varieties to please every palate

Ice cream comes in enough varieties to please every palate

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream!

July is National Ice Cream Month and almost everyone loves the frosty treat.

With hundreds of flavors ranging from basic vanilla to the more obscure garlic (yes, there is a garlic ice cream!), narrowing down a favorite could be difficult.

So depending on who you ask, you’ll likely get different answers.

For example, Taste of Home magazine reports that Pennsylvanians’ favorite ice cream flavor is “brownie.”

The online grocery delivery service Instacart, however, names mint chocolate chip as the favorite of the Keystone State.

That’s the most popular flavor served at Heisler’s Cloverleaf Dairy in the Lewistown Valley of Tamaqua, according to Ann Ostergaard of Heisler’s. But it’s followed by a close second of vanilla.

Affordable Seating, a restaurant furniture manufacturer, has its own reports. After analyzing Google search data for more than 100 ice cream flavors for all 50 states, it found that Pennsylvanians prefer Neapolitan.

“Neapolitan ice cream is particularly popular across the U.S. It consists of three classic flavors, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, in one container. The flavor has historical significance, tracing back to the 19th century,” said Zach Kanoff, of Affordable Seating.

At Leiby’s Restaurant in South Tamaqua, Leiby’s teaberry flavor is ordered most often, said employee Iyonna O’Brian. She said that Nittany Paws, which is similar to Moose Tracks, is also well-liked. So, too, is vanilla.

Teaberry is also tops at the Boulevard Drive-In and Family Restaurant of Lehighton, according to an employee there.

Flamingo Ice Cream in Tamaqua scoops out a lot of Blue Panda ice cream, a blue-colored sugar cookie concoction mixed with cookie dough. Owner Shawn Pourmonir said coconut follows close behind.

Claude’s Creamery in Palmerton has been scooping out a lot of its most favored flavor — peanut butter caramel cookie dough.

According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the average American eats about 20 pounds of ice cream each year, or about four gallons. It reports Americans favorites, in order, as vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, butter pecan, cookie dough, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, rocky road and peanut butter/peanut butter cup.

Iyonna O’Brian serves up a dish of teaberry ice cream, which is the most popular flavor at Leiby’s Restaurant in South Tamaqua. JILL WHALEN/TIMES NEWS
Shawn Pourmonir of Flamingo Ice Cream in Tamaqua serves scoops of Lil’ Blue Panda ice cream — the shop’s most popular — in a waffle cone he makes on-site. It is sugar cookie flavored ice cream mixed with cookie dough and cream filled chocolate cookies. JILL WHALEN/TIMES NEWS
Janessa Blum, team member at Claude’s Creamery in Palmerton, serves a cone of Peanut Butter Caramel Cookie Dough to Corey Eck, 13, of Lehighton. Corey said vanilla is actually his favorite flavor. TERRY AHNER/TIMES NEWS
Jahsir Martinez, left, and Matthew Jones, right, of Heisler’s Cloverleaf Dairy in the Lewistown Valley of Tamaqua, serve up mint chocolate chip ice cream. It is the dairy bar’s best seller, followed by vanilla. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO