Iconic ice cream is back at century-old Alabama soda fountain

Iconic ice cream is back at century-old Alabama soda fountain

It’s back!

Two months after Trowbridge’s Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop served the last scoop of its iconic orange-pineapple ice cream, the popular flavor has returned to the 105-year-old Florence soda fountain.

The ice cream, which is featured on the Alabama Tourism Department’s list of “100 Dishes to Eat in Alabama Before You Die,” had been temporarily unavailable after Trowbridge’s previous supplier, Mayfield Dairy Farms, discontinued the flavor earlier this year, according to Pam Trowbridge, the Florence shop’s fourth-generation owner.

So, while Trowbridge hustled to find another dairy to make it, longtime customers waited patiently for its return.

“The customers have been in an uproar about this,” Trowbridge told AL.com today. “They were just tired of waiting.”

But that wait is over.

A fresh shipment of 14 containers of orange-pineapple ice cream arrived at Trowbridge’s today from Nash Family Creamery in Chapel Hill, Tenn., just south of Nashville.

Trowbridge had been working with Nash the past several weeks to recreate the orange-pineapple flavor, and she even drove to Tennessee to deliver a half-gallon that she had saved and packed in dry ice so Nash’s recipe developers could sample and experiment with it.

After some trail-and-error, the Tennessee creamery has hit on a recipe that is really close to what Trowbridge’s customers know and love, Trowbridge said.

“My only comment is the pineapples are too big,” she said. “Flavor-wise, it’s pretty on point.”

Her customers, she added, will have the ultimate say.

“We’re going to let our customers decide if it’s on the mark,” she said. “If not, (Nash) can make little adjustments along the way if we need to.”

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The orange-pineapple ice cream has been a favorite of Trowbridge’s customers since Texas dairy farmer Paul Trowbridge moved to Florence and opened Trowbridge’s Creamery, as the shop was then known, on North Court Street in 1918.

In 2021, Pam Trowbridge said, the shop sold about 270 three-gallon containers of Trowbridge’s signature flavor — in cones, shakes, sundaes and by the pint.

It is a unique flavor.

“It’s an ice cream, but I feel like it leans more towards the sherbet flavor,” Trowbridge said in an earlier interview with AL.com. “It’s really a refreshing and effervescent kind of flavor. It’s unusual. It’s a combination of two of the best fruits, and everybody just loves it.”

Trowbridge’s Ice Cream & Sandwich Shop is at 316 North Court St. in Florence, Ala. The phone is 256-764-1503. For more information, go here.

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