I kind of have a problem. I am kind of obsessed with one of our new discoveries, a wonderful place called Sno Cream in Knoxville, Tennessee. This local “mom and pop” shop is located conveniently close to I-75/40 (perhaps too conveniently located 🙂 ) in the Turkey Creek shopping area of Farragut.
I am always sucked into a place whenever I am cheerfully greeted by all of the employees. However, the appeal of Sno Cream goes well beyond the initial greeting. As luck would have it, the owners have just happened to be present both of the times I have been to Sno Cream.
On the first visit, they took the time to explain about the business, a little about themselves and then gave an overview of their products. They followed up by letting us look through the laminated photos and descriptions of all of their normal menu products. The photos helped to cement the choice I had already made from the menu board.
The second visit was just as friendly as the first, but this time they recognized us from our visit over a week before. Considering how busy it was on both occasions we were there, I was very impressed.
So, what is a Sno Cream dessert? As I understand it, it is an Asian-style dessert that is made with finely shaved frozen milk to which a syrup or powdered flavor has been added. It is piled high into a dish with a proprietary whipped cream cheese topping and your selected topping in the middle. It has condensed milk and fruit and/or other toppings on the outside of the shaved ice. It is then topped off with more of the whipped cream cheese topping and fruit or other chosen flavor and finally drizzled with a flavored syrup.
On our first trip, I selected the pina colada. It was beyond wonderful!
The daughter decided to get peach. She thought her’s was better than mine; I disagreed.
On our second trip, the daughter ordered the melon Sno Cream. She loves honeydew. I had to agree that it was extremely good.
In an ironic twist, I decided to get my daughter’s favorite fruit on the second trip, blueberry. I hate sounding like a broken record by it was heavenly.
On both trips, my entire family showed our inner child-side by loving the color-changing spoons. I really think the success of any business, especially a food-based business, is in the details. It is one detail we loved.
Another detail I loved was the fact that they used Fiesta Ware bowls from Homer-Laughlin. Being a transplanted West Virginia gal and a Fiesta Ware lover, I found this to be a real plus. (I am also aware that most people would not look at the underside of their dinnerware to confirm the manufacturer -I own my quirks). I also loved that those bowls were piled so high that the Sno Creams seemed like a cross between an ice cream cone and an ice cream sundae in style. Plus, all of the Sno Creams pictured are their small size. I can’t imagine eating a medium or large.
We have also tried other menu offerings at Sno Cone. My dairy-allergy husband ate some delicious Thai-style sticky rice without the signature whipped cream cheese topping. My daughter also had one of her favorite boba teas (bubble teas) ever. It was the first time she was able to get the boba tea with popping pearls instead of tapioca. She likes tapioca but found blueberry popping pearls to be just to her taste.
When you go keep in mind that this is not an ice cream shop. It is not as simple to make as just scooping ice cream into a cup or cone. It takes longer to make than a banana split. It is going to be akin to the banana split or a sundae in price because it is more similar to them than an ice cream cone. They use mostly fresh ingredients and appear to take considerable care to present you a great product.
We plan to go back…soon. I have my loyalty card embarrassingly full considering just how recently we found this place.