I don’t know about you, but when I see the name of an ice cream shop “Almost Heaven” it seems like a sign that I should give it a try. That is exactly what my husband, Bobby, and I did during a recent trip to Canton, Ohio.
We had traveled to Canton to visit the First Ladies Library and Historic site. After our tour we enjoyed lunch at John’s Grill, but wanted something sweet to end our day. I did a search for desserts near us and that’s when I found Almost Heaven Homemade Ice Cream it was like divine intervention.
We traveled the four miles to the shop. We didn’t know what to expect, but were a little surprised to see it was an outside ice cream shop. That means you order at the window and eat your food at the picnic tables or in our case, the car, because of the weather.
Ben, our server, was really terrific. He was polite and patient, explaining the different flavors to us. We could sample, “as many as we liked,” Ben told us. I tried the blueberry cheesecake, just because and the double chocolate. Bobby tried the Salty Caramel. We showed a lot of restraint, stopping at those samples!
As we were contemplating our choices, they have over 20 flavors, Ben shared that their strawberry and butter pecan ice creams were award winners. We also found out that Almost Heaven is beginning their 12th season making and serving delicious ice cream.
Once we finally made up our minds, we opted to have our ice cream in their homemade waffle cones. I couldn’t decide on whether to have the chocolate explosion (a combination of chocolate ice cream, Oreo cookies, brownies, chocolate chips and a ribbon of fudge) or the Green Monster (mint ice cream with Oreos, brownies, chocolate chips and a ribbon of fudge) so I didn’t. I got a scoop of each.
When I saw the size of the scoop, my first thought was, “that’s a super scoop!” I already knew that there would be no way I could eat the whole cone in one sitting. Then when it was handed to me, the solidness/weightiness of it confirmed what I was thinking. I even had to ask for a spoon to eat my cone!
Bobby’s cone was just as large. He chose to get the award winning Butter Pecan and Salty Caramel. The Butter Pecan ice cream was rich and creamy. Bobby said it had the traditional butter pecan flavor with a hint of caramel. And it was filled with roasted and salted pecan halves–not chopped. The pecans were crispy and crunchy, too. “And there were just so many of them,” Bobby exclaimed. The Salty Caramel had a river of caramel flowing through it.
As we sat in our car, enjoying the ice cream, we marveled at the flavors. It seemed that every bite was a bit different, but every bit as delectable as the previous one. However, as I said earlier, we weren’t able to eat it all. We decided to chance traveling home with our ice creams. Bobby got a couple of cups for us to invert our cones. We put them in the freezer, cone and all, once we got home. The reconstituted ice cream was just as good. While I wouldn’t necessarily recommend planning your trip this way, it is nice to know that should you have to refreeze the ice cream, it doesn’t lose any of its lusciousness in the process.
By the way, for those of you who have that competitive gene deep inside –you know who you are (Randi and Shaun Vahl) — Almost Heaven has the Goliath Challenge. This humongous dish consists of 15 big scoops of ice cream, chocolate strawberry and vanilla, plus 5 bananas, chocolate, strawberry, and pineapple toppings, whip cream, peanuts, and cherries to top it off. The rules, as stated on their website, are that the treat needs to be finished within 30 minutes and there can be no “regurgitation/vomiting for 30 minutes after finishing.” I dare you to try.
While we just happened upon this ice cream shop, I would highly recommend you take a trip there if you are ever in the area. Or, plan a day to Canton which includes a scoop or two of Almost Heaven Ice Cream.
