From creamy blue cheese to pungent black garlic, you’ll never go back to plain old vanilla after you’ve sampled the daring ice cream flavours at these adventurous dessert destinations.
This Junction area café and chocolate shop is renowned for its organic handmade dessert offerings. Ice cream flavours here are seasonally inspired and locally sourced; the drunken cherry features fruit soaked in Cabernet Franc from Southbook Vineyards in Niagara. Experimental owners Jeff Brown and Jennifer Rashleigh occasionally showcase audacious savoury options like duck confit and a popular Quebec blue cheese option that’s creamy, complex and surprisingly delicious.
Locavores will go gaga over the neighbourhood-inspired flavours at this popular dessert spot on Ossington. Crowds from across the city stand in line to sample the SJCB espresso ice cream made with beans from Sam James Coffee Bar just a few doors south, and the Bellwoods stout ice cream is made with beer from Bellwoods Brewery across the street. Forgo the standard cup or cone and get creative by sandwiching scoops of novelty ice cream between two fresh-baked cookies or inside a fluffy light cream puff.
Torontonians no longer have to hop on a plane to sample the notorious cereal milk ice cream at Manhattan’s Momofuku Milk Bar. The nostalgic soft serve ice cream is topped with crumbled cornflakes for an added crunch. The Toronto Milk Bar outpost (located just upstairs from Momofuku's popular noodle house) pays homage to its new digs north of the border with a patriotic ice cream made with Tim Hortons’ coffee. Swirl the two flavours together and make it a double double.
Tim English, a former Bay Street lawyer turned chocolate shop owner, clearly isn’t afraid to take risks. The experimental confectioner has been known to dip almost anything in chocolate and is renowned for his legendary limited-edition garlic ice cream that he serves during the annual Toronto Garlic Festival held at the Evergreen Brick Works. Previous incarnations of the seasonal specialty include garlic buttered popcorn, black garlic and Vietnamese coffee. Be forewarned, the pungent tang is definitely an acquired taste.