Top Iowa Ice Cream Picks!

Happy National Ice Cream Day!  This just might be my favorite holiday.  I mean, who doesn't like an excuse to eat ice cream!  Every June, in honor of National Dairy Month, my family goes on an Iowa Ice Cream Road Trip.  This is a fun and sweet tradition that not only lets us see new places across the state, but we get to eat great food too.  Through our travels we've had a lot of great ice cream, and through some hard deliberation around a bowl of ice cream, we have selected our top soft serve and hard ice cream in Iowa!  Someone has to do the hard work, and for you Iowa, our family has sacrificed calories to do so. ;)

Top Iowa Soft Serve Ice Cream:  The Whippy Dip in Decorah, Iowa

The Whippy Dip is a seasonal walk-up ice cream stand that serves creamy and rich soft serve ice cream in the heart of Iowa's "Dairy Country" in Northeast Iowa.  This ice cream shop even sources its milk from a local dairy - you wouldn't expect anything less would you?

The Whippy Dip keeps its ice cream simple by offering vanilla or chocolate.  While the ice cream alone is good, our family thinks it is even better by adding some mix-ins and creating a Tornado (think Dairy's Queen's Blizzard - but better!).  Our top recommendation is their Cookie Dough Tornado.  They layer real cookie dough (none of that frozen cookie dough mini-ball stuff - we're talking a slab of real cookie dough you could actually bake into a cookie) in their soft serve and then mix it up.  They then add an extra scoop of cookie dough and mini chocolate chips on top!  Every bite is guaranteed to have cookie dough in it.

Top Iowa Hard Ice Cream:  Heyn's Ice Cream in Iowa City, Iowa

Heyn's Ice Cream is in the heart of Iowa City.  Their cute Holstein dairy cow decor and over 40 flavors of hard ice cream make for a fun ice cream experience!

Their flavors of ice cream offer so much variety and rich flavor, we feel like the best way to eat it is simply served in a cone (or maybe in one of their Dream Cones which are hand dipped and rolled in sprinkles or Butterfinger crumbles).  Our pick, which is also their top seller, is their Monster Mash, a vanilla ice cream with monster cookies mixed in it.





So there you have it!  Our pick's for Iowa's top soft serve and hard ice creams!  Enjoy and celebrate National Ice Cream Day today!  What is your favorite ice cream shop?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Iowa Ice Cream Trip First Stop at Decorah to "The Whippy Dip"

One of our family's Summer Bucket List items is to go on an "Iowa Ice Cream Trip" during the month of June to celebrate National Dairy Month by visiting an "ice cream destination" weekly.  We figured our first stop had to be at one of our all-time favorite summer ice cream stands, The Whippy Dip in Decorah.  We made our annual pilgrimage last week and I'm excited to share about this nostalgic landmark today on my blog and on Travel Iowa's blog as part of a collaborative "Favorite Summer Flavors" post.

MP and LP sitting outside of
The Whippy Dip deciding what to order

"The Whippy Dip" is a seasonal walk-up stand that serves creamy and rich soft serve ice cream, along with a lunch and snack menu.  A neat side note is that "The Whippy Dip" sources its milk form a local dairy.  You wouldn't expect anything different in Iowa's dairy country!

Cookie Dough Tornado

"The Whippy Dip" keeps its ice cream simple by offering only vanilla and chocolate flavors and then letting you make your dish unique by providing many mix-ins.  I personally always go for a Cookie Dough Tornado with chocolate ice cream (think Dairy Queen's Blizzard - but better!).  They double layer the delicious chocolate soft serve with real cookie dough (not the cookie dough balls found at other ice cream places.  I'm talking about a scoopful of real cookie dough so you can have some in every bite) and mix it up.  Then they add a little extra cookie dough on top!

If you're passing through Decorah this summer, or if you're within an hour's drive... be sure to make a stop at The Whippy Dip!  They are open daily from 10am to 10pm and are located at 131 College Drive.

LP enjoying a chocolate cone at The Whippy Dip

Have you ever been to "The Whippy Dip"?  What is your favorite ice cream flavor?  Remember to Comment for a Cause!

Check out our Week 2 stop at Hansen's Farm Fresh Dairy outside of Hudson, Iowa.