But, as much as I love a creemee in a wafer cone, sometimes I want to savor a different summer symbol: the milkshake.
My favorite Vermont milkshake is churned to order at Middlebury Chocolates in Frog Hollow Alley. Spun with homemade ice cream and bean-to-bar chocolate, this not the frozen treat I indulged in as a child. That milkshake was called a “frappe,” and in my case was blended with two scoops of Hood Golden Vanilla and a heavy hand of Hershey’s chocolate sauce.
And yet, Middlebury Chocolates’ shake hits every note of sweet nostalgia even as it reflects the labor and quality that went into it: churning from-scratch ice cream with local milk and chocolate made from the bag of beans behind the store’s counter.
This milkshake is thick and velvety, like the frappes I used to covet at White Mountain Creamery near Boston College, but with a texture so soft it almost seems aerated. The cream is cold without being icy; the chocolate is sweet but dark, lending a faint cocoa bitterness to a treat that is often too aggressive with the sugar.
The shake is finished with a good dollop of hand-whipped cream and shavings from a knob of chocolate grated over the top. The chocolate milkshake may be available year round, but this special-occasion indulgence is best enjoyed outside, in a sunny corner on the café’s veranda by the roaring Otter Creek Falls.
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I’m sure the milkshakes are good at Middlebury Chocolates but how much are they ? Their price for a regular size chocolate bar is $6.95 . Shockingly they also sell “limited editions” of the same size 2 ounce bars for $16 .Seriously ? I’m thinking Lindt or Ghirardelli are good enough for me .I’m also wondering what a shake costs here .
Dear Richard, yes, we sell our chocolate bars for $6.95/ea and we also produce a special series called “Epoch” that range from $12 to $18, depending on the bar. Unlike Lindt or Ghirardelli who manufacture bulk chocolate using commodity grade cocoa, lots of extra cocoa butter, soy lecithin, and other flavor enhancers/neutralizers, we craft small batches of chocolate from sustainably produced, organic cocoa, we press our own cocoa butter in house, use no emulsifiers, and add only organic sugar and whole spices. We sort, roast, winnow, and refine all our own cocoa, with each small batch of chocolate taking over a week to produce (60 days in the case of our Epoch bars). If you find no value in what we offer and prefer Lindt, Ghirardelli, or any of the other bulk commercial manufacturers, that is perfectly okay, but please know that we and many others find immense value in a producing and consuming products that are better for our bodies, better for the ecosystem, and better for the economic chain in which they are produced. Just FYI, our milkshakes are $5 – comparable to what you might pay for a creemee-based shake consisting primarily of corn syrup and hydrogenated oils… except ours are lovingly made with local cream, milk, organic sugar, and other homemade components. Thank you for your comment, as it has provided a great opportunity to provide this distinguishing information for others to assess and decide where they place value.
My family and I went to Middlebury Chocolates for one of the shakes mentioned here, and must say we were disappointed. This may simply be our definition of chocolate shake.
Did you ever get one of the Guatemalan Dark Chocolate shakes made with the Old World mix at South End Kitchen? That was chocolate, dark chocolate. Not everyone likes that, I get it (and they don’t even make that ice cream any longer… so obviously I’m in the minority.)
The shake at Middlebury Chocolates was thin, more milk than ice cream, and tasted more of a vanilla custard than chocolate. We made sure to say, “as chocolate as you can make it”. It was overly sweet and actually made me a bit queasy with the sugar and custardy-ness. However, I must say that éclairs and Boston crème things make me queasy too and many folk love them. My husband and son were just disappointed with the flavor.
The price was reasonable for an artisanal shake and the quality was worth the $5.00. I did have a very hard time finding out if they were open (we went July 5), they never answered their phone and I called six times. We happened to be in New Haven doing some work and took the chance and just drove over. The location is absolutely lovely, I will be sure to visit Frog Hollow Alley again.