7 Old-School New England Ice Cream Favorites
For generations of New Englanders, these seven ice cream flavors come sprinkled with nostalgia.
By Yankee Editors|Jun 28 2022|
Coffee By Design | Portland, Maine
Photo Credit : Katherine KeenanPhoto Credit : Photo by Michael D. Wilson | Styling by Chantal Lambeth, Anchor Artists
7 Old-School New England Ice Cream Favorites
Orange-Pineapple
While Trowbridge’s in Florence, Alabama, likely invented this flavor in 1918, orange-pineapple was one of Massachusetts-based Howard Johnson’s original 28 flavors, which may explain why it has long been so beloved here.
Maple Walnut
Quite possibly the most New England-y flavor of all, this perfect marriage of maple and toasted walnuts set against a creamy backdrop has been a regional favorite since at least the early 1900s.
Peppermint Stick
One of Brigham Ice Cream’s most popular flavors (and another of the original HoJo’s 28), this minty delight with crunchy bits of candy is even better when served with a drizzle of hot fudge.
Grape-Nut
Combine a vanilla base with America’s oldest cereal, and freeze. It’s a New England classic, though it’s said to have been invented in 1919 by one Hannah Young in Nova Scotia. Fun fact: It’s as beloved in Jamaica as it is here.
Frozen Pudding
Like a rum raisin gussied up with candied fruit, this Victorian-era flavor may be an acquired taste, but it makes us happy to still see frozen pudding on the occasional menu.
Black Raspberry
Another of Howard Johnson’s original 28 ice cream flavors, this deep-purple, sweet-tart concoction may have been inspired by the wild blackberries that grow in abundance across New England.
Coffee
Fannie Farmer’s original 1896 cookbook has a recipe for this, and while coffee ice cream may not be unique to New England, no one loves it more than Rhode Island, home of coffee milk, coffee cabinets (milkshakes), and Awful-Awfuls (coffee ice milkshakes).
Special thanks to Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar of Massachusetts for letting us raid their lineup of classic ice creams for the scoops you see in this photo.
Six out of seven have always been my favorite ice cream flavors, especially grape nut, but I have never tried frozen pudding.
Grapenut and frozen pudding are my two faves. My grandfather and I used to walk to the corner drugstore for an ice cream cone in the mid-late 1940s and frozen pudding was always his favorite, and became one of mine. Both are hard to come by today in western Mass, but Benson’s in Boxford has both, and is a must-stop when I’m in that part of the state. And because I’m a FP fan, a newer flavor I’ve added to my list is ginger. It’s ice cream weather!
Is frozen pudding like spumoni but without the pistachio?
Pistachio was a favorite as was wild cherry
Just left New England to go home to Wisconsin. Ice cream is an everyday event for us in Maine. We live in the dairy state and find the best ice cream in Maine. Any kind of coffee, peach or blueberry ice cream is our favorite. We cannot get blueberry or peach where we live.
i hate to say it but Tillamook’s Oregon Dark Cherry trumps (sorry) all of these.
I do agree!!
My especially attentive wife , once observed , that HO-JO’S had 28 flAVORS OF ICE CREAM…….AND ONE FLAVOR OF FOOD….but she does misS HO-JO’S…
I’d forgotten about Grape-Nut ice cream…
Brighams mocha almond was one of my favorites!
Mocha Chip is a good ole New England flavor too
I was just wondering where the mocha chip was! (Maybe it made its debut decades after these classics.)
These are wayy better than the junk in the supermarkets…cookie dough, peanut butter, candy bar pieces, caramel. Like it was way back in cars, you can have any color you want as long as it’s black….
Always loved Grapenut which can be hard to find. Have some here in NH. Coffee is my 2nd.
I think this list included all that would have been my grandmother’s favorites along with the addition of pistachio. (She was an ice cream lover since her childhood more than a hundred years ago in Fall River, Massachusetts.) And, although she passed a love of ice cream on to this granddaughter, I can firmly say that coffee and peppermint stick are the only ones I would seek out from this list. Ironically, today, a friend and I were discussing the ice cream faves of earlier generations. I wasn’t sure if I had imagined ‘grapenut’!
Maple walnut has been a favorite in my family for generations.