18 January 2013

MacKays Ice Cream Cochrane



I have always loved to read, and tend to devour books so quickly, that I struggle to justify the cost of buying them. When I was a little girl, I remember reading books that were based in Northern USA / Canada… lots of talk of snow and toboggans, snowmen and hearty winter food… places I could only ever dream of visiting.

Two particular books really stirred my imagination. One in particular where the lead character bought a hot chocolate that was “so thick and rich, that the spoon stood up all by itself”. I was mesmerized!

 I had no idea what hot chocolate was. I imagined someone melting huge vats of chocolate bars and selling them as a drink… so thick that you needed a spoon to eat it!




The second book was a family who lived quite literally in the middle of nowhere, and in winter the mother would make them “snow ice cream” – by collecting fresh powder snow, and adding cream and vanilla essence… I thought this was AMAZING! So I tried to make it myself...

Obviously in baking hot, outback Australia we had no snow… so I went for what seemed to be the next best option – by chipping and scraping the frost off the inside of the freezer door. Needless to say that even with the addition of cream and vanilla essence – It was absolutely revolting. God only knows the last time that freezer was defrosted, but that “snow” was certainly never intended for human consumption…

Thankfully, I’ve been able to spread my wings a little since then. I’ve eaten amazing ice cream from all over the world – Home made, Restaurant made and even attempted a few legitimate batches myself! 

Yesterday we pulled Poppy out of daycare and took a family road trip to Cochrane… I had a work meeting there, but we had also heard whispers of a gorgeous little ice creamy in town that was so good, the lines stretch around the block in Summer.


We weren’t disappointed – MacKay’s seems to be a local institution, when we first walked past there were 3 little old ladies, bums squashed together on a park bench while they gossiped and licked their ice creams. I don’t know if they were locals or not – but it wasn't too difficult to imagine them enjoying that very same ritual for the last 60 years or so!


Hubby had a chocolate milkshake, Poppy had a scoop of Chocolate Ice Cream and I had a Chocowave – a frothy hot Chocolate with a massive scoop of Colombian Espresso Ice cream plopped right into it… it was divine! 

Hubby’s milkshake was so good and thick, I’m pretty sure you could stand a spoon up in it, and Poppy’s chocolate ice cream was delicious. Rich and creamy - the best way to describe it was “natural”, it just tasted of cream and chocolate – no aftertaste, no lumps, no icicles… just perfect.

Lucky for us, Cochrane is only 30 minutes away, and worth every minute of the ice cream commute!

MacKays Ice Cream
220 1st Street W 
Cochrane


MacKay's Cochrane Ice Cream on Urbanspoon

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