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| - When Cold Stone first opened in the Time Hortons at Bay & Bloor, which is right across from my office, it was a very bad day for my health. Those first few weeks I was getting Cold Stone ice cream almost every other day. In the interest of not putting on 20lbs I've since cut back big time but I still love this place.
Here's how it works:
1. Pick from about a dozen different ice cream flavours. Choices include your basic chocolate and vanilla as well as more unique options like cake batter and cheesecake.
2. Choose what toppings you want. Chocolate sauce, brownies, whole chocolate bars, gummy bears, nuts, you name it, they have it.
3. They put your ice cream and toppings on a chilled granite slab and mix everything up using metal paddles and stick it in your choice of cup, cone, or waffle cone.
You can either choose your own ice cream and toppings or go with one of their predefined Signature Creations. I usually go for the latter and my favourite is Founder's Favourite: sweet cream ice cream, brownie, pecans, fudge sauce, and caramel. So amazing.
What really makes Cold Stone is the quality of their ingredients. The ice cream is surprisingly good for a chain, it's super rich and creamy. All the toppings are top quality as well and you always get tons of themr.
The whole hand mixing on a granite slab sounds gimmicky but I think it's actually key. I like that the hand mixing leaves lots of large chunks of toppings and that the toppings are unevenly distributed in size and location.
Be warned the ice cream is really rich and sweet. I usually can't handle anything more than the small.
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