The Graetest Ice Cream Ever!
No, that title isn’t a typo. I’m about to let you all in on a secret, for which you can thank me later. A day I’ve been waiting eighteen years for has finally come: Graeter’s ice cream has gone nationwide!
Of all the things I miss about Ohio, Graeter’s ice cream is at the top of the list. When we were little my parents would take us there for a treat, and it was the absolute best. The inside of the store was exactly what a little kid would picture when thinking of an ice cream shop: all white, counters with spinning stools, and rows and rows of flavors. And oh my god, the flavors. They had the most amazing Mint Chip, a Chocolate Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip that tastes just like an Almond Joy, and a Chocolate Chocolate Chip that was to die for. But the flavor that trumps everything else on the face of the earth was their Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip.

Under that lid? Heaven.
Nothing compares to it. Nothing. It’s smooth, it’s creamy, and it tastes like pure euphoria. For years I’ve been trying to find a black raspberry ice cream that is in the same league, and it’s been a futile attempt. Sure, I’ve encountered a few, but unlike Graeter’s, none of the others had been blessed by angels (the only explanation I can come up with for how good it is.) And it’s not just the ice cream itself that makes it so good: It’s the chocolate. To call them chocolate chips is a bit of a misnomer; they’re actually chunks of chocolate. And not the hard kind of chocolate you get mixed into your ice cream at Baskin Robbins. No, this chocolate melts in your mouth. Also, this is how big the chocolate chips are:

Those are chocolate chips in strawberry ice cream. Oh yeah.

The Valhalla of ice cream