A Sundae Drive Along Connecticut's Ice Cream Trail

Whoever said ice cream was only a treat for kids clearly never tasted the beer ice cream at the Old Lyme Ice Cream Shoppe!

Ice cream is the perfect cool-down treat when the sun is sweltering and these days, ice cream comes in all kinds of flavors from bacon (yes, that's right, bacon!) to coconut, birthday cake to peppermint stick, and you'll find all these flavors and more along the Connecticut Ice Cream Trail.

To help you find that perfect scoop or two, Mystic County recently released Sundae Drives 2012. The guide highlights the best ice cream in Eastern Connecticut along with suggestions of nearby attractions to visit. Think of it as Connecticut’s Ice Cream Trail. 

There are so many ice cream places along Route 156 from Niantic to Old Lyme that there's barely time for the ice cream to melt between stops. The guide emphasizes shops that make their own ice cream but Niantic is bookended by Dairy Queen—which just celebrated its 60th anniversary!—and Frosty Treat, which offers soft-serve ice cream seasonally, both of which are local favorites.  

For all of the localvores in Connecticut the guide even includes where the ice cream is processed. The list of places to try is so good that ABC News included it in their list of America’s Best Ice Cream Trails and Festivals.

There are 42 ice cream places on the trail to try, but if that’s a little daunting there is always the shortened list of “the Tasty Ten,” featuring the 10 Eastern Connecticut places that have been nationally recognized.

Here are some of the local offerings:

East Lyme

, perfectly located just by the entrance to Hole-in-the-Wall Beach it's a big hit with kids of all ages.

Old Lyme

South Lyme Scoop Shop is one of the newer ice cream shops and offers ice cream made by Salem Valley Farm.

 , a member of The Tasty Ten, it's been serving ice cream for more than a century and offers 24 flavors to choose from.

, a member of The Tasty Ten, the shop offers 16 flavors daily from a total menu of 35 different ice creams but the owner always keeps local favorites, such as coconut, on hand.

If you feel like making a day trip out of it, here are a few more!

Mystic
, member of The Tasty Ten


Twisterz (opening soon)

Pawcatuck
Cream ‘n Cone

Ledyard

Montville

Ice Cream Shop at

New London


, member of The Tasty Ten