TOLEDO, Ohio — Fall is officially here but ice cream can be a year-round dessert. If you're looking for a new place to try, add Swanky Scoops to your list.
"Swanky Scoops makes handmade artisan ice cream in unique and unexpected flavors," owner Alissa Vieira said.
You might have seen them around town. During the summer, they operate out of a mobile cart at many of the local outdoor events.
But when the weather gets cooler, they move inside and hold pop-up events at its production kitchen.
"As we move into fall, we are celebrating our pumpkin ice cream, our Buckeye which is chocolate and peanut butter flavor, and one of our unique, out-of-the-box flavors is our Midwest Maize. That's a sweet corn ice cream," Vieira said.
Vieira says her ice cream has a bit of a twist.
"I love hand-dipped ice cream. Typically whenever I would travel or go someplace, it was always fun to seek out unique flavors. I felt like there was room in Toledo for creative ice cream options," she said.
She said there are typically two types of ice cream, American/Philadelphia-style and French style.
Swanky Scoops' ice cream is a French-style recipe.
"American or Philadelphia-style is made with high-quality dairy and dairy only," she explains. "Our French recipe is dairy as well as eggs. That creates and super creamy and rich indulgent ice cream experience."
Vieira said that's the secret to a creamy ice cream that doesn't melt fast.
Some of the flavors on the menu right now are seasonal and likely something you've never imagined in an ice cream flavor.
"The Midwest maize, it's a sweet corn ice cream," Vieira said. "We get local sweet corn from Bench Farms in Curtice. We take the fresh corn kernels at peak season and steep them into the milk we use to make the ice cream and it tastes like corn."
She said there's a first for everything, and the Midwest Maize is definitely a flavor you should try.
It's also officially pumpkin season, so Vieira said they had to have this flavor in the lineup.
"I love all the pumpkin things this time of year," she said.
She said the pumpkin ice cream is similar to a pumpkin pie: not too sweet and keeps the pumpkin flavor.
"A lot of pumpkin spice things are really manipulated now. You get a lot of sweet, a lot of spice and it gets away from the actual pumpkin flavor. I think ours stays true to what it's meant to be," Vieira said.
But if Midwest Maize and pumpkin aren't your flavors, Vieira said they have others you will like.
"Our fan favorite, which is our Buckeye. You can't go wrong with that chocolate, peanut butter combination," she said.
The mobile cart season for Swanky Scoops is beginning to wrap up, but they will be doing a few more events in October.
It's participating in the 10th Street Stroll happening on Oct. 13 and at the Art Commission's Art Loop on Oct. 15.
Swanky Scoops also have flavors available at the Walt Churchill's locations in Perrysburg and Maumee and at the Original Sub Shop and Deli in south Toledo.
More from WTOL: