Hotel B Ice Cream Parlor sits in a prime location in downtown Bethlehem. Located on 462 Main St. right next to Grandpa Joe’s Candy, this parlor serves a wide variety of frozen treats.
The menu includes sundaes, floats, milkshakes, drinks, pastries, and of course, ice cream, with a wide variety of toppings to choose from. All of the ice cream served is made by Penn State Berkey Creamery, an ice cream company that began production over 150 years ago, and is based out of Pennsylvania State University. When first entering the shop, exposed brick, pastel blue walls, and clean white wooden accents fill the interior.
There are two freezers to order from: the classic flavors and the featured flavors. The featured flavors are specialty flavors that are rotated monthly. This month, the featured flavors included August Pie, Chocolate Pretzel Crunch, and Thon Gold Ribbon Ripple. After looking over the menu, I ordered a scoop of Alumni Swirl. I had never heard of this flavor of ice cream before, so to say I was enticed and excited was an understatement.
Alumni swirl is vanilla ice cream with blueberry swirl and mocha chips. These were some of the best ice creams I have ever had. The vanilla was creamy and sweet which complimented the fresh and slightly tart flavor of the blueberry swirl. Lastly, the mocha chips add a delightful crunch, the coffee flavors exuding strongly as the chips break open. Normally, I love to add marshmallows, sprinkles, and whipped cream to my ice cream, but this time I forwent those additives so I could focus on the star of the show which is the ice cream.
Alumni Swirl ★★★★★
(Logan Palau)
Additionally, I sampled a few other flavors to get a fuller scope of what Hotel B Ice Cream Parlor had to offer. Bittersweet mint was the second flavor I tasted. A classic mint ice cream with chocolate chips that was very creamy and pungent with mint. Though the taste was strong, I didn’t mind it too much, but beware, there is no hint of mint, it’s the whole damn plant. Overall the ice cream was good, but I could not imagine myself having more than three bites of it before my mint intake got full.
Bittersweet Mint ★★★☆☆
The next two flavors I tried were heavily recommended to me by the staff working the night I went in for this review. First is a flavor called Peachy Paterno, peach ice cream with peach slices. This flavor was refreshing and reminded me of a warm relaxing day in the summer sun. Though peach month (August) has only just come to a close, I hope that this is a flavor they keep year-round.
Peach Paterno ★★★★★
Speaking of peach month, the next flavor recommendation I received was called August Pie. Vanilla ice cream with sliced peaches, nectarines, and red raspberry sauce. Personally, I am not the biggest fan of fruit-flavored sauces as I find them to taste too artificial. However, the August Pie was actually quite delicious. Though I do not like fruit sauces, I am an avid fruit lover. The charcuterie board of snacks I devour at midnight always includes one or two kinds of fruit. Since this flavor included actual fruit slices, I didn’t mind the taste of the raspberry sauce. In all honesty, the sauce was muted compared to the rest of the flavors. There was enough raspberry to taste, but not too much that it overpowered the scoop.
August Pie ★★★☆☆
Last, but certainly not least in the lineup of flavors I sampled is an ice cream called Grilled Stickies, a scrumptious blend of cinnamon bun flavored ice cream, a cinnamon streusel swirl, and pieces of sticky bun dough scattered throughout the sweet treat. Personally, I LOVE and I mean LOVE cinnamon buns. There used to be a ma-and-pop diner in my town that would give you a free cinnamon roll if it was your birthday. Without fail, the majority of my childhood birthday breakfasts included a homemade cinnamon roll, so this flavor took me back to a comforting place. I will say, this flavor will not be your favorite if you aren’t a cinnamon lover, but this isn’t the spicy kind of cinnamon that you taste when eating Red Hots. Imagine the taste you get when eating the Philly Pretzel cinnamon sugar dip, or having a cinnamon sugar Auntie Anne’s pretzel. This flavor was everything it needed to be.
Grilled Stickies ★★★★☆
Though I did not try them, I found it incredibly cool that if you order a float, they pour in soda from a bottle you pick out yourself, and with whatever is left over in the bottle, you get to keep to drink. Additionally, if you wanted a chipwich, you could select a cookie from their pastry section, making the whole experience feel personalized. I hope this review made your mouth water enough to go try all these flavors and more for yourself!
