Ice Cream Is Big in New Hampshire: Where to Find the Best Scoops in the State

You received’t discover a dearth of ice-cream outlets in Vermont, Massachusetts or Maine, which neighbor New Hampshire. Ben & Jerry’s model, for instance, makes its residence in Vermont. Nonetheless, New Hampshire residents take specific pleasure of their ice cream, if not the state’s complete dairy business. At one time, greater than 800 dairy farms dotted the state, in response to Amy Corridor, government director of Granite State Dairy Promotion. Although that quantity has dropped to 94, there’s nonetheless loads of cream to gasoline the native obsession.

My spouse and I just lately spent per week in New Hampshire, taking within the mountain views, swimming in startlingly clear lakes and consuming heaps and many ice cream. We sought out outlets with historical past—each on the Ice Cream Path and never; some went again a number of years, different a number of a long time. Beneath are 5 standouts. You possibly can hit all of them in an extended day’s drive of about 175 miles, however that may be extra ice cream than you possibly can deal with. As an alternative, stretch out your visits over a number of days. However don’t wait too lengthy—some operations shut as quickly as summer season ends.

Puritan, Manchester, N.H.

The Greek Revival

In 1917, Arthur Pappas and Louis Canotas, an immigrant duo from Greece, opened a sweet and ice-cream store in Manchester, N.H., one in every of New England’s bigger cities. Through the years, Puritan added and shuttered shops throughout the state and redefined its method. At this time, its sole location, reverse a Manchester park, is each a bustling diner-style restaurant, dubbed the Puritan Backroom, and a takeout ice-cream stand. Strive the baklava taste, the Greek dessert reimagined in frozen kind. Or go for Charlie’s Chocolate Manufacturing unit, a decadent deal with that mixes white-chocolate chips and chocolate truffles into chocolate ice cream.

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From left: A pair of immigrants from Greece opened the Puritan sweet and ice cream store in 1917; Puritan’s Charlie’s Chocolate Manufacturing unit ice cream, chocolate ice cream studded with white-chocolate chips and chocolate truffles; the eating room at Puritan Backroom, which can also be well-known for its hen tenders.

Puritan is equally recognized for its hen tenders—which the restaurant claims to have invented a long time in the past. It usually serves 8,000 to 10,000 kilos of them per week. Add it up and it’s little surprise that Puritan has discovered fame past New Hampshire: In 2020, it obtained the James Beard Basis’s “America’s Classics” award.

245 Hooksett Street, Manchester

King Kone, Merrimack, N.H.

The Huge Deal

A fixture within the quiet city of Merrimack for 50 years, King Kone aspires to be the go-to place for soft-serve. It makes the supple deal with, says proprietor George Soffron, from a custom-produced base created in partnership with a regional dairy. It additionally serves up prodigious parts: In the event you get the namesake foot-high cone, be ready for overload—2 kilos of ice cream kind its tower. In his twenty years of working the stand, Mr. Soffron says he’s realized that solely famished teenage boys can end a King Kone by themselves.

From left: At King Kone ice cream stand, a fixture in Merrimack for the previous 50 years, the namesake foot-high cone equates to 2 kilos of ice cream; peaches ‘n cream twist with vanilla delicate serve; George Soffron, proprietor of King Kone.

Whereas vanilla and chocolate are at all times on its menu (together with the ever-present vanilla-chocolate twist), the stand has a rotating menu of different choices. On the day I visited, I attempted a yummy peach (above, in a peaches ‘n’ cream twist with vanilla), which is even higher in one in every of King Kone’s generously-sized sundaes. If you’re trying to make a meal of issues, King Kone serves up tasty hard-shell tacos as effectively.

336 Daniel Webster Hwy., Merrimack

Lago’s Ice Cream, Rye, N.H.

The Combine Grasp

This sprawling, family-run roadside operation has thrived for 4 a long time within the coastal city of Rye. (It really dates again to 1957, when it operated beneath a distinct identify and possession.) It has made its mission to get as artistic as potential, packing its menu with 40-plus selfmade flavors.

From left: Lago’s has been a well-liked spot for 4 a long time within the coastal city of Rye; ‘Sea Biscuit’ ice cream, a mix of Lotus Biscoff cookie-butter unfold and sea-salt chocolate-cookie swirl made in-house; Henry Billingham having fun with a cone of Lago’s cotton sweet ice cream.

Among the many hottest: Funky Panda, an Oreo cookie-based ice cream with toasted coconut and a caramel swirl. I opted as an alternative for Sea Biscuit, a tasty taste that blends Lotus Biscoff cookie butter with a sea-salt chocolate-cookie swirl (under). It’s the brainchild of Steve Grenier, who heads up Lago’s together with his spouse Andrea (nee Lago) Grenier, whose grandfather skilled Mr. Grenier. For an earthier possibility, strive Lago’s lick-your-spoon-worthy model of Grapenut, a traditional New England taste that includes Grape-Nuts cereal.

71 Lafayette Street, Rye

Kellerhaus, Laconia, N.H.

The Maximalist

This multiroom ice-cream store that doubles as a sweets and present emporium is a storied institution. It dates again to the early 1900s, when Otto G. Keller began working at a sweet store within the lakeside city of Laconia. Inside a yr, he took over the enterprise and by the Nineteen Twenties, had begun making his personal ice cream. Within the Nineteen Sixties, Kellerhaus moved to its present, close-to-shore location—the favored Weirs Seaside—and have become a spot frequented by vacationers and locals alike. Ice cream flavors vary from stalwarts like vanilla and chocolate to idiosyncratic tastes like cotton sweet and cookie monster. Regulars come for the make-your-own sundaes (pictured above).

Kellerhaus, which dates again to the early 1900s, is a component ice cream store, half sweets and present emporium; one of many common ‘make-your-own’ sundaes; the toppings bar at Kellerhaus.

Clients love Kellerhaus, now beneath nonfamily possession, for its buffet-style setup that lets them take pleasure in any variety of toppings—sizzling fudge, raspberry sauce, banana chips, you identify it. If you end your sundae, you’re nonetheless not completed: Ready patiently to tempt you is a strong collection of chocolate treats ready in-house—strive the supersize nonpareils—and items starting from Christmas ornaments to socks.

259 Endicott Avenue North, Laconia

Sanctuary Dairy Farm Ice Cream, Sunapee, N.H.

The New Child

A relative “newcomer” to the New Hampshire ice-cream scene, Sanctuary has solely been round a little bit over a decade. That mentioned, it’s the work of a household whose dairy-farming roots within the state return to the 1700s. The stand is the imaginative and prescient of Beck Johnson, who says he began it when he was about 9. He has gone in all places—from Penn State College, famed for its ice cream “brief course,” to Italy—to find out about manufacturing strategies. Now 22, Mr. Johnson regularly experiments with flavors, even creating some with a boozy component. The quantity of alcohol in a single such concoction, his maple bourbon, is “not sufficient to get you drunk,” he stresses.

From left: Beck Johnson, who helped open the ice cream stand on his household’s dairy farm when he was 9 years previous; maple bourbon ice cream, one in every of Mr. Johnson’s boozy creations; the spacious setup at Sanctuary Dairy Farm contains an out of doors play space with tetherball and different video games.

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You’ll discover greater than a snack when you journey to Sanctuary, situated within the rural city of Sunapee. The spacious setup affords interactions with livestock—donkeys and goats, particularly. And there’s a play space full of video games and even a tetherball courtroom. Mr. Johnson says he needs to present households an opportunity to loosen up and “let their children be children.” A separate stand on the property additionally sells Sanctuary’s ice cream to go, together with merchandise from native farms, resembling meat and maple syrup.

209 New Hampshire Route 103, Sunapee

Write to Charles Passy at cpassy@wsj.com