In spite of this weekend’s cooler temperatures (yesterday’s high was only 96!), Saturday was a perfect day for the Austin Ice Cream Festival. Bill and I decided to offset those calories by walking the two miles from downtown to East Austin’s Fiesta Gardens. The northern path along the Hike-and-Bike Trail was mostly shaded, but we still arrived hot and sweaty, and were grateful to be greeted with our first ice cream sample right inside the festival entrance.
The $10 per person admission (free for children eight and under) entitled us to ice cream from Blue Bell and The Melting Cone, plus three tickets to use at our choice of other vendors. The Melting Cone truck offered basic vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry with a few topping choices. Our cone slices were a little stale, but Bill’s chocolate and my strawberry ice cream were quite good.
Next Bill and I each had to determine how to use our three allotted tickets. Our unanimous first choice was Austin Scoops…just look at this interesting selection:
Bill chose Cinnamon Bun and I picked Roasted Marshmallow. We loved our selections. Mine was very creamy, with a hint of marshmallow (and a bigger hint of sprinkles). We heard that Austin Scoops provides the ice cream for the local Alamo Drafthouses. Sometime we will have to take a trip to their storefront location down south near Slaughter Lane.
Our second pair of tickets went to local favorite, Amy’s Ice Cream. Their ice creams are a bit chunkier, and their servers will hand-mix in all sorts of things at their shops. At Saturday’s festival, I chose Mexican Vanilla, while Bill tasted the Oreo mix. Both were yummy as always.
After a careful review of the other vendors, we decided to use our final tickets at The Ice Cream Social Bus. We learned that this truck is usually parked on South Congress. Bill had White Chocolate. I liked my Roasted Strawberry Cheesecake, an excellent blend tasting more cheesecake-y than strawberry.
The festival included other ice cream and food vendors, and a live-music stage. Popsicle sticks and glue were quite a popular attraction for the children. Hopefully the little guy taking a nap was not actually stuck to the floor.