Rita's has three different types of frozen goodness: hard ice cream, soft-serve ice cream, and Italian ice. I have gone twice now to Rita's: once for a flight of Italian ice, and a second time to get a flight of the custard ice cream (hard). I enjoyed the hard custard ice cream more than the Italian ice. The Italian ice is smooth, almost like a slightly melted slushy, rather than the much harder kind that requires you to dig at it like you're Indiana Jones on a fossil-hunting expedition. That said, after a while the ice melts and you're left with a slightly icy substance that tastes like really cold Kool Aid. It's fine for a while, but eventually it gets tiring. So I suppose the lesson is to eat it quickly, brain freeze be damned!
The custard ice cream, however, was excellent. Tried four different flavors (banana cream, mint Oreo cookie, chocolate chip cookie dough, and black cherry cheesecake). Loved the mint Oreo, probably my favorite, followed closely by the cherry cheesecake. The cookie dough had plenty of large chunks and came in a close third. Last place by a long shot was the banana cream, mainly due to the fact I'm not a big fan of that "artificial" banana flavor that doesn't quite taste like real bananas (supposedly this is because the artificial flavor was based on a different species of banana that fell victim to blight many decades ago). Still edible, just not the kind of flavor I enjoy.
Rita's had maybe ten different flavors of hard custard ice cream, two flavors of soft-serve (chocolate and vanilla) and then maybe a dozen flavors of Italian ice. They also serve ice cream cookie sandwiches using the hard custard. Would like to see more flavors for the hard custard with perhaps something more novel than the typical flavor profile you get at most generic ice cream shops. All the same, definitely will be going back soon!
All USA
Rita's has three different types of frozen goodness: hard ice cream, soft-serve ice cream, and Italian ice. I have gone twice now to Rita's: once for a flight of Italian ice, and a second time to get a flight of the custard ice cream (hard). I enjoyed the hard custard ice cream more than the Italian ice. The Italian ice is smooth, almost like a slightly melted slushy, rather than the much harder kind that requires you to dig at it like you're Indiana Jones on a fossil-hunting expedition. That said, after a while the ice melts and you're left with a slightly icy substance that tastes like really cold Kool Aid. It's fine for a while, but eventually it gets tiring. So I suppose the lesson is to eat it quickly, brain freeze be damned! The custard ice cream, however, was excellent. Tried four different flavors (banana cream, mint Oreo cookie, chocolate chip cookie dough, and black cherry cheesecake). Loved the mint Oreo, probably my favorite, followed closely by the cherry cheesecake. The cookie dough had plenty of large chunks and came in a close third. Last place by a long shot was the banana cream, mainly due to the fact I'm not a big fan of that "artificial" banana flavor that doesn't quite taste like real bananas (supposedly this is because the artificial flavor was based on a different species of banana that fell victim to blight many decades ago). Still edible, just not the kind of flavor I enjoy. Rita's had maybe ten different flavors of hard custard ice cream, two flavors of soft-serve (chocolate and vanilla) and then maybe a dozen flavors of Italian ice. They also serve ice cream cookie sandwiches using the hard custard. Would like to see more flavors for the hard custard with perhaps something more novel than the typical flavor profile you get at most generic ice cream shops. All the same, definitely will be going back soon!