I hope I am not alone in ascribing great importance to Ice Cream in cycle touring. For sure, Pizza is often mentioned in blogs, but I think Ice Cream deserves an equal place. When you roll into a town in Summer, overheated and with blood sugar running low, that's where Ice Cream shines. 

In central Europe (not France!), the "Eis Cafe" is an institution in most towns. These usually offer "gelato", in a stunning variety of flavours. Typically, as I have often reported, the price for this high quality product is 1.20 to 2.00 euros per scoop.

Well, we are no longer in Central Europe, but that did not stop us from jumping on a cycle path here in Victoria, BC yesterday, or from arriving overheated and low in blood sugar near the community of Cordova Bay. Naturally ice cream was in order, and here is what we got:

This is pretty standard ice cream, locally made by "Island Farms". The price for this scoop: $6.04, which is 4.60 euros, or more than double the European price.

Seemingly slow learners, we proceeded into Victoria town, and put down $4.40 for this:

This is much more of a "local" specialty, and as far as we could discern on the walk from the counter to the trash can, contains no actual "ice cream" or recognizable dairy ingredient.

What about in your town or on your travels? Have you found good ice cream at a reasonable price? Have you found good ice cream at any price?

I've become quite lactose intolerant but back in the day big scoops of Tillamook ice cream on the Oregon Coast was a nickle a scoop. For calorie starved teens a triple cone was an afternoon affair. In Los Angeles 31 Flavors B&R was charging 25 cents for smaller scoops. No less a cycling authority than Willie Weir confirmed the 5 cent ice cream.

Every so often I ride into a place with non-dairy frozen deserts. If they are any good, they are expensive.

Ice cream became a nightly indulgence as we progressed in our recent tour. The warmer the weather, the more likely we were to look for ice cream!

The ice cream shop in Ridgway, CO had the best price and the best flavor. 

We also love ice cream but prefer the homemade hand dipped variety. There hasn't been much on offer on our trip but we did enjoy some when we were in Pennsylvania at an Amish creamery. They had jersey cows so it was very rich tasting! Some of the best we've had has been in Michigan and Wisconsin - again at farms. And of course, Tillimook ice cream at the factory in Oregon can't be beat! The hard part is picking the flavor!

We rarely eat ice cream in the states but while touring in Thailand we looked for the 'Walls' freezers in small stores or the 7-11. We were perfectly happy with the cheapest ice cream bar. That red heart Walls logo made my heart leap with joy every time.

How about Marionberry Pie!

That joy may show that multinational business is not always bad. It's interesting to look up the history of Wall's, which was a British brand, founded in 1786! In 1922 it was acquired by Unilever, and interestingly though the name Wall's is used in Wales, Lebanon, China, India, England,Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Pakistan, Cambodia, Laos,Thailand and Morocco,  and Scotland, Unilever uses about 25 other names for the same darn stuff in many other countries. In Germany, it's Lagnese, and in USA, Good Humor.

Glad you mentioned the US brand (Good Humor).  No I know what you are talking about.  I mostly know the brand from the ice cream trucks that visited the streets of my childhood ringing their bells to announce their arrival.  Every kid recognized those bells.  Not sure if the trucks are still on the road anywhere, but we don't have them where I live now.

I do like similar products on breaks when on tour.  A favorite of mine is the Drumstick ice cream cone.

For the hand dipped variety we liked the Braum's Ice Cream & Dairy Store.  We ran across them on the Trans America.  I think it was in Kansas.  I later ran across them on other tours in Texas amd maybe Oklahoma where the originated.  They also had great burgers.  I think they claimed to locally source their farm goods.  In any case the food was good in the restaurant (sit in and take out) and they has a nice little grocery selection as well including really good in house baked stuff.  We were sorry when we left their territory.

I just saw your reference to the Good Humor brand.  Then I remembered riding past this huge frozen treats factory in Tennessee on one of my first bike tours.

I was afraid to comment on this thread, because the following admission might make me one of the most despised bike tourists of all:  I don't particularly care for ice cream.  I'll eat it on occasion if it is served for dessert at a gathering of friends, but I'd never stop for it while on a bike tour.   Okay, I'm bracing myself for the comments.