Beyond Vanilla: Celebrate Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day on Friday

With summertime in full swing, it's a popular time to stop by your favorite ice cream shop to try something cold and tasty in the form of a cone, sundae or shake. And if you're looking for another reason to try something cool, did you know that Friday is Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day?

No one is quite certain how the day got started, but there's a rumor going around that it's part of the monthly festivities of Ice Cream Month, which starts July 1st. It started back in 1984, when then-President Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month to help goose ice cream sales.

Talk about creative--last year, members of theNational Ice Cream Retailers Association voted for their favorite new flavor (members get to sample new ones at their annual meeting), and here's the scoop: The biggest vote-getter was Blueberry Pomegranate Gelato, made by Double Dip, a Mom 'n Pop ice cream shop in Lebanon, Ohio. 

You don't have to travel all the way to Ohio to sample creative ice cream flavors. No fear, Northern Virginia has plenty of its own shops just waiting for adventurous palates.

Patch decided to check in on a few of them to find out how creative some of their flavors are. Here's what we found:

Pops Old Fashioned Ice Cream located at 105 King St., in Old Town, Alexandria, (703-518-5374) is located in an ice-cream heavy area of Old Town in a busy spot near the Potomac and right next door to the Fish Market restaurant. Employee Samantha Coughlan told Patch that Cookie Dough is one of the most creative ice cream flavors offered by Pops. Pops can get crowded, but there are other ice cream shops close by. Scoop Grill is across the street and Ben & Jerry's is right around the corner.

At Peterson's Ice Cream Depot in Clifton, 7150 Main St., (703-830-7898) you'll be tempted by one of their most creative flavors: Pomegranate Black Raspberry. All of the tasty treats are home-made by the depot, said family member Rachel Peterson. Vanilla and chocolate are always on the menu, along with some flavors of the week.

At always-popular The Dairy Godmother in Del Ray, 2310 Mount Vernon Ave., (703-683-7767) they're all about creativity, offering up a smorgasbord of flavor. Coming up in July: Blueberry, Salt Caramel (caramel custard with sea salt caramel added) and Florida Lime Pie, described as a "Zippy Persian lime custard with graham cracker crust." (Technically, custard isn't ice cream, it's custard: more dense but less fattening than ice cream.)

Baskin Robbins (with locations at Potomac Yard Shopping Center, Belle View Boulevard and Duke Street) gets creative with its Flavor of the Month in July: "Super Soldier Swirl." The concoction is vanilla ice cream sprinkled with blue-colored candy chips and a cherry-flavored ribbon. The flavor is the company's first tie-in with a movie debut, "Captain America," which comes out in movie theaters July 22nd.