All Over Albany

All the current Stewart's seasonal summer ice cream flavors, ranked

We're already into mid August and that raises a very important fact: Summer ice cream eating season will soon be gone.*

But fear not! To help guide your end-of-season ice cream eating -- which is serious business -- we recently took on the task of trying each of the limited-time seasonal summer flavors at Stewart's. Then we ranked 'em, so you can make the most of this ice cream prime time.

Let's dig in...

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Stewart's is selling dough boys from Esperanto

Updated

There is no doubt an alternate universe where this has already happened because it makes sense: Stewart's is now offering dough boys from Esperanto in Saratoga Springs at a handful of its locations in Saratoga County.

Doughboys are, of course, chicken, three types of cheese (including cream cheese), and spices wrapped into a pizza dough. (Esperanto also sells a dough girl that swaps out the chicken for vegetables. Those are not being offered by Stewart's right now.)

They're very popular (especially late at night, because you know). When we talked with Esperanto many years ago about them, the Caroline Street shop's signature item made up a third of its business.

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Two million servings of ice cream

Because ice cream: Stewart's had a sale on half gallons of its ice cream last week. And this week Stewart's president Gary Dake tweeted it was a record sale for the company, with an average of 769 half gallons sold per shop.

So, that's...

+ 259,153 half gallons of ice cream sold.*

+ $774,867.47 in half gallon ice cream sales.

+ Enough ice cream for almost 2.1 million individual servings. **

* Stewart's has 337 shops, according a January company press release.

** The FDA's official serving size for ice cream is 2/3 of a cup, but who are they kidding? So that number of servings is based on 1 cup per serving. (If you want to use the FDA measurement, the total would be more than 3.1 million servings.)
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By the way, we stumbled across the remarkably thorough Stewart's FAQ page today, which covers everything from why there's not an ice cream club card, to the source of the company's eggs, to why the shops carry "adult sophisticate" magazines.

The Best Dozen: Stewart's

Donuts are convenient. I like to think of them as delicious energy pillows. They make a good breakfast treat, and you may also want one any time you have a cup of coffee.

Stewart's Shops is one of the more popular places for coffee around the Capital District. In some ways this regional convenience store is the heart and soul of the area. And it just so happens that they sell donuts, too.

What kind of donuts can you expect from a regional institution better known for its milk, eggs, and ice cream? Are they as good as the award-winning Philly Vanilla ice cream? Or are they a little rougher around the edges, like Stewart's Mountain Brew Ice?

The only way to find out was to eat them all.

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Perfect score milk

Stewart's won the gold medal for fluid milk at this year's New York State Fair. The local chain's milk was awarded a perfect score> -- 100 -- in the competition that uses criteria including bacteria counts, flavor, and butterfat content.

The competition is coordinated by Cornell and has been going on annually since 1997. In that time, Stewart's has taken the gold three other times -- including another perfect score in 2007. Only four perfect scores have ever been awarded, according to the chain -- and now Stewart's has two of them.

Stewart's gets its milk from 30-40 dairy farms in the greater Capital Region and processes it at a plant in Greenfield. The chain says the time from dairy farm to store shelf is usually less than 48 hours or less.

Battenkill
Also in the competition's top 5: Battenkill Valley Creamery, from Washington County, whose milk scored an 86.7. (It won the competition in 2010).

Old Chatham Sheepherding Co.

Monday was dairy day at the fair and the winners of a whole range of dairy categories were announced, including cheese. Old Chatham Sheepherding Co. in Columbia County took both the gold and silver in the "Cheese from Milk Other Than Cows Milk" category for its camembert and Kindehook Soft Ripened, respectively. And Old Chatham's camembert was named the grand champion of the dairy competition.

screengrab: Stewart's

Maple walnut ice cream from Stewart's

Slurpees are the defining product of 7-Elevens around the country. Every now and again I'll miss having easy access to this remarkable frosty beverage that so skillfully rides the line between two phases of matter.

When I first moved to the Capital Region I would have traded all of the Stewart's for even just one 7-Eleven if given the chance. But now, in no small part to Mr. Dave's romanticizing of the shop, I can finally see Stewart's as a cultural anchor of upstate New York. And despite my predilection for organic milk, eggs from free-roaming chickens, and ice cream made without additional gums, thickeners or emulsifying agents, I find myself regularly at my local Stewart's buying milk, eggs, and ice cream.

Amazingly, the reason isn't because Stewart's is convenient. It's because these staples are just really good.

Their maple walnut ice cream would have never even made it onto my radar had it not been for an event from last summer. Hands down, it's my favorite flavor in their case. And now is the perfect time to eat it.

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Surveying the hot food at Stewart's

Stewart's is a local favorite, of course. Whenever you see their famous maroon and white signs, you know there's a place to get a cup of coffee, a buttered hard roll, snacks, or ice cream.

But a part of the Stewart's lineup I had never tried was their spinning shelves of hot food -- things like the eggwich, hamburger, and... pizza.

So I decided to try it.

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Noted: incinerators, like stomachs, get upset when they eat too much ice cream

Stewart's posted on its Facebook page today about what's happened to all that ice cream it had to recall:

We are disposing of the recently recalled ice cream at an area landfill, as well as a burn plant. We can only send 40 tons of recalled ice cream, a day, to the burn plant -- more than that will put out the fire. We are destroying a total of 250 tons of ice cream!

In other Stewart's ice cream news, Jessica spotted Crumbs Along the Mohawk, back in circulation. (Crumbs has reportedly changed lives.)

Earlier on AOA: Stewart's ice cream recall info

photo: Stewart's Shops

Stewart's ice cream recall info

Stewart's announced Friday afternoon that it's recalled 19 ice cream products that were made in its Greenfield plant since May 19. From the company website:

This action is a result of an equipment failure at the plant resulting in the possibility of foreign material being present in the ice cream. This recall is a precaution taken by Stewart's Shops. To date there have been no reports of any objects being found in the ice cream flavors listed below or any injuries associated with this problem. The products being recalled are clearly coded.

Product info is after the jump.

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A tank of gas, a cup of coffee and a history lesson

Who could resist an invitation like that?

Incongruity pleases me. So when I saw an old stone building cheek-by-jowl with a Stewart's shop in Hoosick, where Route 7 meets Route 22, I had to pull in and have a look.

Even before you notice the date of 1842 carved above the doorway, it's clear the place is very old. It's built of weathered stone, with a heavy lintel and a sloping roof. Along the Route 22 side of the building is a peeling sign: "Stewarts Shops invites you to visit our 150 year old school house." Curiouser and curiouser.

So I walk into the Stewart's. "What's up with that schoolhouse? Do you own it?"

"It's on our property," says the cashier. "I don't know much about it, but I can let you in if you want."

She gets the key, goes out to unlock the place for me, and leaves again.

And from one side of the parking lot to the other, I've stepped out of Stewart's and into the past.

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Everyone's taking a hit on gas prices -- sometimes even the gas stations

A pump at the Stewart's at New Scotland and Whitehall in Albany on Tuesday.

Gary Dake, the president of Stewart's Shops, dropped a tweet last week that made us stop for a second:

Yesterday we sold 550,000 gallons of gas at an average margin of a 2 cent loss per gallon.

Yep, a regional chain -- with 271 gas station locations -- was selling gasoline last week at times for less money than it cost to buy and deliver it.

Curious about how that could happen, we called up Stewart's spokesman Tom Mailey for some background.

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