I knew summer was in full swing when I picked up the paper last week and saw that this Sunday was the annual Ice Cream Sunday at the Chattanooga Market on the Southside. As usual, all of the local ice cream stores brought out tons of ice cream to cool off the hundreds of people who came out to become judges.

Like last year, the tickets were $5 each, but well worth that and the wait to taste 14 ice cream from seven local ice cream vendors.

Since the line was pretty long, my mom and I got my sister and dad to wait in line for us while we wandered through the market looking at the fresh vegetables and local artwork. Once I returned to the line, it was not too long of a wait until the taste testing began.

The first booth was the locally owned Clumpies. The two flavors that they served to each person were French Silk and Cookies and Cream. These are two of my favorite flavors from Clumpies so they left a strong impression for the first booth. The consistency is a bit thicker than other competitors but it benefited them in the end as it didn’t melt as some other ice creams did.

The second booth was Nana’s Frozen Custard. Although I usually don’t think much of the frozen custard, as I don’t consider it real ice cream, I was pleasantly surprised. Nana Pudding and Vanilla were the two flavors dished out by this booth. The Vanilla was very smooth like all of their frozen custards but it could have used a bit more vanilla flavoring. Although I was a bit skeptical of the Nana Pudding at first, it ended up being one of my favorites the whole day. It had a fabulous banana flavor, and the pieces of cookies in it gave it a great touch.

Cold Stone was the third booth to give me a taste. Their two flavors were Birthday Cake Remix and Strawberry Shortcake. The Birthday Cake was a cake batter ice cream with lots of mix-ins. I didn’t care for it at all. It was way too sweet and just not my type of ice cream at all. However, my younger sister loved it. As for the Strawberry Shortcake filled with pieces of yellow cake and strawberries, I found it average but nothing amazing.

After Cold Stone, I was looking forward to my favorite ice cream store in town and last year’s winner, Bruster’s. The two flavors that they served were Birthday Cake and Chocolate Raspberry Truffle. I was not too happy to see Birthday Cake again but to my surprise this tasted nothing like the previous one. Although it was still not my favorite, I was actually able to eat this one. The Chocolate Raspberry Truffle was pretty good but also not my favorite flavor of ice cream.

The socially conscience Ben and Jerry’s was the next booth. Cherry Garcia and Dublin Mudslide were the two ice creams served. The mixture of cherries and chocolate in the Cherry Garcia is my mom’s favorite ice cream. I also love this classic, and it didn’t let me down. Dublin Mudslide was also a good option; although, its flavor didn’t have quite the kick of the Cherry Garcia.

The second to last booth was Marble Slab. They served each taste tester a sample of Blueberry and another…. Birthday Cake. Neither was anything great.

The last booth was the staple- Mayfield. I love this ice cream at home but it tastes a bit prepackaged compared to the others.

In the end, I voted for Clumpies because of the flavors of ice cream. This was a hard decision because I felt several of the others had better consistency. Later in the day I found out that Nana’s Frozen Custard won by a large margin. Although I was a bit disappointed at first, after reconsideration, I feel that Chattanooga has made another wise choice.

With three different winners in only fours years, next year is sure to be another great show down between all of the great competitors. Congratulations Nana’s.

Clumpie's served up French Silk and Cookies and Cream flavors. Click to enlarge.
- Photo2 by Priya Boyington