And I have to admit, there wasn't much of a scene. It seems that
Amy's Ice Cream, which is a small chain around the Austin (and now Houston and San Antonio) area, has the lock on the city's ice cream. In my search, I really couldn't even find any other pure ice cream shops. There are plenty of healthy yogurt type chains. And another popular thing in Austin are their snow cones or shaved ice or snow balls. It seems they go by a number of different names, but are essentially the same thing.
I was only able to sample one of these, but I drove by a number of stands touting Hawaiian Shaved Ice Cream or New Orleans Snow Cones. I can maybe understand the New Orleans influence, but the Hawaiian influence is a strange one for me. Maybe since Austin reminded me quite a bit of Los Angeles and that city has some proximity to the islands? Could that explain it?
Regardless, I ventured to Casey's New Orleans Snow Balls. It was certainly off the beaten path and you had to be looking for it. Judging by the crowd, people certainly know to look for it. The flavors were all over the place: traditional (cherry, coconut, chocolate), exotic (tamarind, hurricane, egg nog), and combinations (tiger's blood, strawberry banana). They also feature both regular flavors and cream flavors (boston cream pie, strawberry cheesecake). So right off the bat, the flavor options appealed to me.
But now what exactly was this stuff? Was it similar to Italian ice? I watched the guy make a few and I was a bit fascinated. He fills a paper cup with unflavored shaved ice and then uses a technique with a straw to poke a hole. Then out comes the syrups. For the cream ones, he usually uses a few different syrups to make the concoction. The Boston Cream Pie for example, was a Custard flavor, chocolate, and a bit of heavy cream. It tasted perfect. Pretty incredible.
They seem to make all their syrups from scratch and I'm gathering that they use real fruit or fruit extracts. The fruit flavors weren't quite as successful for me. The pineapple was a bit too sweet and the watermelon tasted slightly artificial. The biggest turn-off for me however was how much syrup he seemed to pour on each snow ball. It really became comical when he was still pouring it on. But later on, I realized that in order for it to bleed down into all the ice, he had to have a heavy hand. But I still think it went on a little too long.
So I ordered two junior sizes (which were only a dollar each and plenty of ice for me). I got the Cafe Au Lait. I'm a sucker for coffee flavor. It seemed like this was an easy flavor to perfect since it's
probably just cream and iced coffee. It worked and it was delicious. It was slightly rich and I couldn't finish all of it. But this was far better than any frappucino.
The second order was a fruit flavor. And I discovered he could put up to three flavors in one order. So I had pineapple and kiwi side by side. Like I had said already, the fruit flavors didn't work quite as well. I always find fruit syrups and extracts to be cheap versions of the real stuff. But they both did the job and they were refreshing and cooling on a hot Texas day.
I can definitely see the appeal to this stuff and I think Casey's does a good job, but I think I prefer more authentic flavors and less syrup.
Next on the agenda was Amy's Ice Cream. I went to the original location on Guadalupe near the University of Texas. This place is sort of like Cold Stone Creamery meets Ben and Jerry's. There is a very hip and eclectic vibe in the store and they do a similar technique to Cold Stone where they use a stone slab to mix in mix-in's.
They're most known for their Mexican Vanilla flavor so I had to taste that. It wasn't quite what I was expecting. It was a deeper vanilla flavor, but I didn't get any sort of spice. Maybe I needed more than a taste. It was good as far as vanilla goes, but I didn't get anything very unique. I also tasted the Shiner Bock (which is one of the local beers) and Brittany's Parade (which was Sweet Cream Ice Cream with frosted animal crackers mixed in).
The ice cream was good - very rich and creamy. The flavors for the most part stood out. I settled on a small cup of the Shiner and Coffee (I told you, I'm a sucker for the coffee). I wasn't crazy about their coffee flavor - it was a little too rich. But I liked that Shiner quite a bit. It was much softer (probably because of the alcohol) and had a sweet and slightly bitter beer taste.
Amy's is definitely the favorite in Austin (is there a choice, really?) and for good reason. It's funky enough but also caters to the conservative ice cream fans. And it seems to be a great place for families and college kids alike.
