Is Rich Ice Cream In Oxford The Best In CT? Patch Readers Weigh In

CONNECTICUT — The editors of Thrillist, who named Ferris Acres Creamery in Newtown as Connecticut's best ice cream, must have known their decision was throwing shade at a pretty zealous and vocal group of gourmands.

The culture vultures' recommendation came with the caveat: "And for any Connecticut residents clamoring about the omission of Oxford’s Rich Farm, there's nothing wrong with the ice cream, but its franchise opening in SoCal means you're now sharing them with the West Coast, which just isn't the same."

We still do not know what they mean by that, but what we do know, now, is just how great a force of Nature is the Rich Farm fanbase. Patch readers rallied to the dairy king's defense, naming it their state favorite by more than a 2-to-1 margin over every competitor — including Ferris Creamery — in our informal and wildly unscientific survey.

Ice cream fans praised the shop's "great," unique" and "delicious" choice of flavors, as well as the overall "farm ambiance."

That ambiance part came easy: Rich Farm is an actual working farm, now in its fifth generation of family ownership and operation. The Rich family moved their cows to Oxford from Seymour in 1950, and opened up the ice cream shop on the property in 1994.

Patch poked around to try and learn the secret to the shop's fanatical following, but didn't get the detailed recipes we were looking for.

"I mean, we just make the absolute best ice cream we can," said Dan Rich, the shop's owner/operator. "We don't skimp on any ingredient. We use the best possible ones we could find. It's all homemade, every day, right here in the shop. We make it in small batches. It's slow churn."

So, no help there. One thing's for sure: Rich Farm takes its cream-filled cookies way too seriously, with nearly a dozen "Oreo Specials" on their specialty flavors menu, including Raspberry Oreo and Peanut Butter Cup Oreo.

"They just go perfectly with ice cream. There's really no better cookie for it, the way they stay, once the ice cream freezes. They get soft, just the right amount," Rich said. "Yeah, it's hard to beat Oreos with ice cream."

In addition to the flagship operation at 691 Oxford Road in Oxford, Rich Farm has franchises in Bristol and Brookfield, in addition to the Placentia, CA, site which so torqued off Thrillist.

If the ice cream makers have their way, southern California won't be the only place ice cream fans can find a Rich Farm outside the Nutmeg State. The owners are on the hunt for new franchisees.

Rich said that the farm mothership in Oxford doesn't ship ingredients to their partners, as that would put a serious crimp in their fresh style.

"Each franchise makes their own ice cream, just like we do. So they get all the same ingredients. And they make it right. And it's all made right in the back room of each shop, so it stays as fresh as possible, and it tastes the same. It's all the same stuff," Rich said.

The Up-And-Coming Challenger?

Less well-known than either Ferris Acres or Rich Farm, but making a big impression among the ice cream cognoscenti in the Patch survey, is Arethusa, with locations in Bantam, New Haven and West Hartford. Readers praised the "very generous portions" and the dessert's high butter fat content, which made it "creamy," "thick" and "deeeevine." Servers will also provide a free "pup cup" for your best friend at the Bantam location, one reader told us, so there's very little to hate, a lot to love there.