Crazy ice cream flavors you must try at these 10 ice cream shops in NJ

🍦 Summer is a great time for ice cream in NJ

🍦 These shops serve up some crazy and unique flavor combos

🍦 Are you up to the challenge?

It’s always a good day to enjoy ice cream in New Jersey, especially in New Jersey.

While the traditional chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry flavors are popular among many, others opt for mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream, and cookie dough.

But for the daring ones, how about trying a crazy ice cream flavor? Say, garlic? Avocado? Basil? They are out there.

These 10 ice cream shops in NJ serve up some funky combo flavors.

The Bent Spoon

35 Palmer Square West, Princeton

Immediately, what comes to mind when it comes to unique ice cream flavors is The Bent Spoon in Princeton. They have so many adventurous creations to try.

Current and past concoctions include beet basil, Earl Grey tea (a fan favorite), lavender marscapone, cardamon ginger, habanero chocolate, avocado and lemon, sweet corn, seaweed, olive oil, sweet potato casserole, sweet basil, bay leaf and chocolate bits, black licorice, hibiscus ginger, chocolate maitake mushroom, and so many more.

Garlic Rose

28 North Ave. W., Cranford

It’s not an ice cream parlor, but the Garlic Rose restaurant in Cranford is famous for its garlic ice cream, a staple at the restaurant since it opened 16 years old. The unique flavor has a vanilla bean base, with chocolate sauce, whipped cream, a cherry, and of course, garlic.

Torico

20 Erie St., Jersey City

This family-owned ice cream parlor offers more than 60 rotating flavors at one time, with seasonal flavors mixed in. They serve up some exotic flavors like ube (purple yam), black sesame, lychee, jackfruit (in the fig family), avocado, and soursop (a mix of strawberry, pineapple, and citrus).

Cookman Creamery

711 Cookman Ave., Asbury Park

This family-owned and community-rooted ice cream parlor in the heart of Asbury Park serves up some cool ice cream flavors.

Most of them are on the sweet side too, which include Fruity Pebbles, Chamomile Lavender, Tahini Chocolate Raspberry, Lion's Mane Coffee, Honey Blue Lavender (milk-based steeped in lavender, sweetened with honey, and harmonized with homemade blueberry puree,) and The Lake (a mineral-rich superfood ice cream made with Royal Spirulina, SVG sea moss, blackstrap molasses, and sea salt). The Lake is a blue-green marbled ice cream designed to encourage healthy living in harmony with the planet. Many fans say it tastes like saltwater taffy.

Latteria

95 Woodstown Road I, Swedesboro

The creamery at Latteria is stocked with more than 30 ice cream flavors daily. One cool and sweet combo is the Chocolate Tastykake Explosion (chocolate with cream-filled chocolate cupcakes, chocolate-frosted donuts, and chocolate kandykakes).

Also try the Raspberry Coffee Cake (raspberry ice cream with cream-filled coffee cakes and cream cheese frosting drizzle), Chocolate Nutella Cheesecake (chocolate cheesecake with a Nutella swirl, graham crumble, and chocolate chips), and the Vanilla Elfwich (vanilla ice cream with double-stuffed Keebler cookies).

They even have two cocktail-flavored ice cream flavors: Butterscotch Bourbon and Amaretto Coconut Cream Cake.

WindyBrow

359 Ridge Road, Fredon Township

WindyBrow has some really neat ice cream flavors. Seasonal includes fig, honey, walnut and ricotta flavored ice cream, strawberry cookie dough, burnt honey pistachio, chocolate milk and cookies, and honey lavender.

Soon, its sweet corn and honey-flavored ice cream will be available.

But the big draw is their Taylor Ham and French Toast ice cream flavor. Managing partner Jake Hunt says it’s a maple and cinnamon French Toast custard ice cream with swirls of local maple syrup, and chunks of caramelized Taylor Ham (or pork roll, whichever side of the aisle you fall).

Nellie Bly’s Old Tyme Ice Cream Parlor

529 Main St., Riverton

Since opening in 2005, Nellie Bly’s has remained in the hands of women, each owner keeping true to her sense of adventure, humility, courage, and willful independence. Indulge in flavors that take you back to the 1900s.

Some unique flavors include Guatemalan Ripple, Pomegranate Blueberry Chunk, and their famous Radio Ball (balls of water ice on top of ice cream).

Gabriel’s Fountain

1948 Washington Valley Road, Martinsville

Gabriel’s has some unique and funky flavors to check out this summer.
Try Watermelon Garden Mint Mojito, Sweet Jersey Cornbread, Good Morning Coffee, Cinnamon Smoked Bourbon, Strawberry Buttermilk, and Turkish Coffee (vegan), to name a few.

Four Boys Ice Cream Shop

3 Tennent Ave., Englishtown

At Four Boys, you can’t ignore the coconut-banana-coffee mix ice cream. Apparently, that’s the flavor one must order, according to fans. For kids (or for the kid in you), Shrek flavor is now available, too (vanilla ice cream tinted green with fudge, cookie dough, and chocolate chips).

Scoop to my Lou

59 Main St., East Brunswick

Scoop to my Lou is a fan favorite ice cream shop in the heart of East Brunswick. While they serve some nifty flavors like Coffee Oreo, Lemon Poppy, Orange Pineapple, and PB&J (featuring grape-flavored ice cream), there’s a couple of, let’s say “interesting” flavors to try according to their TikTok.

One is Goat Strawberry Balsamic, which is a goat cheese sweet cream base swirled with strawberry-black pepper and balsamic jam. Are you game?

Then there is Butterbeer, a rich, sweet flavor inspired by the Wonderful World of Harry Potter.

Enjoy a delicious sweet treat with a twist in New Jersey this summer.

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