Confession, I prefer making my sweets with a little alcohol in it. The flavors that come from an excellent spirit melt in well when properly paired with a sweet. If ice cream is served in heaven you can bet a few of these flavors from Loblolly and O’Looney’s are going to be on the list.
The partnership is the perfect melding of two locally focused businesses. O’Looney’s is involved in a number of partnerships at any given time around the year, sponsoring everything from wine dinners to events at the zoo, anything that involves alcohol and community you can bet that O’Looney’s is somehow involved. On the flip side Loblolly has just as many local partnerships going on. They frequently collaborate with local breweries, pie shops, cake makers, restaurants, food trucks, and anything else you can throw ice cream on top of.
“Alcohol flavored ice cream is nothing new, but the chance to bring two local businesses together to make it is something magical,” O’Looney’s owner Jonathan Looney tells us. “We take a lot of care in selecting and curating the products we sell and Loblolly takes a lot of care in producing their small batch ice cream. The combination makes a very good product.”
O’Looney’s has always been carefully curated wines and liquor. The collaboration flavors work really well to capture the essence of fall and winter in the roughly three month run of the collaboration. A new flavor will be introduced every two weeks, beginning today, and will run through January 4th. The special Loblolly flavors will only be available at O’Looney’s (no soda fountain sales).
The program kicks off with a perfect combination of spicy and sweet called the Double Chili Chocolate. The ice cream uses Loblolly’s traditional chocolate ice cream mix and combines Ancho Reyes chili liqueur. The result is a smooth start that finishes with a bit of a kick. Even better, Loblolly will be on hand at O’Looney’s from 4-7 tomorrow to give free tastings. The flavor last until November 1st.
“We love to get to work on collaborations like this,” Loblolly owner Sally Mengel tells us. “It gives the team a chance to step outside the box with our flavors and get the chance to work with another great local business.”
Other notable combinations include Pineapple Rum Fancy, which uses Plantation Pineapple Rum along with sweet vanilla cream, a Negroni Sorbet, and a Spiked Egg Nog using Allspice Dram. Here are the full schedule of flavors and dates you can find them.
Wednesday Oct 19 – Double Chili Chocolate
(Chocolate with Ancho Reyes Liqueur) Wednesday Nov 2 – Banana Nut Marula
(Banana and nuts with Amarula) Wednesday Nov 16 – Pumpkin Spice Irish Cream
(Pumpkin with Baileys Irish Cream) Wednesday Nov 30 – Pineapple Rum Fancy
(Vanilla with Plantation Pineapple Rum and pineapple chunks) Wednesday Dec 14 – Spiked Egg Nog
(Egg Nog with St. Elizabeth’s Allspice Dram) Wednesday December 21 – Negroni Sorbet
(Hayman’s Dry Gin, Campari, Dolin Vermouth, with Orange) Wednesday December 28 – Sparkling Elderflower Sorbet
(Sparkling white wine, St Germaine Elderflower Liqueur)
