Cold play

If I could only eat one thing for the rest of my life, I might choose ice cream. Maybe not the healthiest choice, but ice cream has brought me more happiness than any other food. It appeals to my love for simple, childish pleasures. And it’s a great mood-mender. My girlfriend, Sara, and I were in cranky, short-fused moods, barely able to stand the sight of one another when we arrived at Tahoe Creamery.

By the time we left, we were happy and giddily in love again. We went from furrowed brows to wide-eyed elation. That’s the power of frozen desserts—bringing people together. The world would be a better place if more people ate more ice cream more often.

Locally produced Tahoe Creamery ice cream has been available in select local businesses for the past couple of years, but this is their first brick and mortar shop, located in Spanish Springs strip-mall sprawl or, as I like to call it, “hell.” It’s a crappy location, but they plan to open new shops soon.

Part of the fun of a visit to any ice cream parlor is to test the patience of the person behind the counter, requesting plastic spoon after plastic spoon of sampled flavors. The girl at Tahoe Creamery was as friendly and indulgent as one could hope for, and we sampled a googolplex of flavors, ranging from the classic to the eclectic: from vanilla to Green Tea.

The creamery’s signature flavors all have rhyming names that reference Tahoe, like “Tahoe Flow Cookie Dough,” and “Tahoe Trip Mint Chip.”

Sara and I both eventually ordered double scoops for $3.95. I had “Chocolate Almond Joy” and “Cinnamel,” a cinnamon and caramel combo. Sara had “Tahoe Crunch Peanut Butter Nunch” and plain chocolate. I probably would’ve liked a straight cinnamon flavor the best, but the caramel certainly didn’t ruin it.

I’d love to wax ecstatic about the magical powers of ice cream, but it’s difficult to formulate articulate thoughts about the stuff because it releases all those nice chemicals that melt away the critical thinking parts of my brain.

Also in dire need of a caffeine fix, I tried something called the Glacier Buzz for $5.15, a sort of coffee milkshake, which I had with the “Tahoe Lutz Coffee and Donuts,” a neat flavor of coffee ice cream with little bits of glazed doughnuts. I’d recommend just having regular coffee ice cream in the drink because my straw kept getting clogged with doughnut. That’s right: “My straw kept getting clogged with doughnut.”

Anytime you can say that, you know you’re in a good a place.

The interior looks like any number of other ice cream parlors that you might’ve visited, though in a decorating nod to a ski-lodge-by-the-Lake, the furniture is all wood, and there’s an inactive fireplace. Wall posters of the owner doing a misguided impersonation of Albert Einstein added an asinine sheen to the interior. But the only real blight to the atmosphere was the wretched commercial-heavy corporate radio station blasting over the speakers.

Nevertheless, this is a place for the faithful believers in glorious, well-crafted ice cream. You’ll be sure to leave as I did: with a happy tummy, a brain freeze, a caffeine buzz, and, best of all, an intense sugar high.