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Blue Moon Ice Cream… the stuff of legends

Maybe it’s because I’m originally from Michigan, but I can’t get enough Blue Moon ice cream.  For those uninitiated, Blue Moon isn’t a place, it’s a flavor.  Wait… calling it simply a flavor doesn’t do it justice. It’s a taste delight!

This ice cream is commonly found in the upper-Midwest states such as Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.   Thankfully there is a Michigan-based ice cream franchise, Kilwin’s, which carries this heavenly taste as far south as Florida.  I was on vacation in St Augustine this past weekend and stumbled across a Kilwin’s location selling Blue Moon.  My family had to endure an excruciating long walk in order for me to get this ice cream.  They were all troopers knowing just how much it meant to me (and the fact that they were getting the ice cream of their choice as well).

I can’t really describe the taste of Blue Moon.  Words fail me.  The best I can come up with is it’s a cone full of joy.  It reminds me of trips to my Grandmother’s house in Baldwin, Michigan.  Jones Home Made Ice Cream shop was just up the street and we’d go there every visit to Grandma’s (regardless of the time of year or amount of snow on the ground).  The memory of Jones Blue Moon ice cream still haunts me.  Kilwin’s Blue Moon is REALLY good, but not quite as good as I remember Jones.  Probably just my memory playing tricks on me.

To see if there is a Kilwin’s location near you, check out the list of retail locations.  If there is one near you, it’s worth the drive to check out Blue Moon ice cream.  It’s probably for the best that I can’t get Blue Moon ice cream here in my hometown.  I would probably grow accustom to Blue Moon, take it for granted, and fail to celebrate its wonder as often as it deserves!

Looks like there is a Kilwin’s location about 3 miles from the DragonCon host hotel in Atlanta.  Over Labor Day weekend, I think I’ll be making a detour on my way to the dealer room…

42 thoughts on “Blue Moon Ice Cream… the stuff of legends

  1. I love Blue Moon ice cream – I’m orginally from upper Michigan and now live in the South. We discovered Kilwin’s last year in South Charlotte, NC and drove there with an cooler. We bought gazillons of gallons to take home and now we’re ready for our return trip. Nothing could be finer than to live in Carolina and be close to a Kilwin’s! Nothing tops Blue Moon ice cream!

  2. superman says mix blue moon w strawberry and banana ice creams to get superman ice cream. the best flavor ever.

  3. In case you live no where NEAR a place that sells it, you can go to this site and they will deliver it to you! It’s kind of pricey but it works if you are having a total craving 🙂

  4. You are my hero! Blue Moon ice cream is my absolute favorite! Of course — I’m from Michigan. Grand Rapids/Holland area. A year and a half ago I moved for Northern Virginia and have been craving Blue Moon and NO ONE here knows what it is or carries it. I just found out there’s a Kilwin’s location in Annapolis, Maryland thanks to your post here. Thanks so much!

  5. Great post – finishing a bow of Blue Moon as I type. Grew up in southern Wisconsin and now live in Madison and we have several types of Blue Moon to shoose from – I feel a bit spoiled — NOT!

  6. My brother enjoyed this wonderful ice cream when we were young. We could only get in from a small mom and pop store by our house. The store has been out of business for years. We would always talk about this ice cream and people who never had it thought we were crazy. We are both so happy to see we were not just dreaming this flavor up. Now the hard part…HOW CAN WE GET SOME. Remember it’s been years …we need our fix of blue moon HELP US PLEASE

  7. I love Blue Moon. I live in SoCal but grew up in Michigan’s UP. I was just telling the kid at the ice cream store about Blue Moon last weekend. He has never heard of it.

  8. OMG! I googled Blue Moon Ice Cream to provide a link for my blog entry and found yours! I’m from Riverview, MI and just finished writing about it! How exciting to find your post! I just found something similar in Oklahoma but with cake pieces (which I prefer it didn’t have!). But VERY excited to see there are other Blue Moon fanatics out there! 🙂

  9. For Blue Moon fans in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area, Cub Foods carries the flavor (by Cedar Crest).

  10. Arrrggghhh! I was just in Minneapolis last week! I wish I’d known this then. 🙁 Oh well, thanks for the information.

  11. I grew up in northern Illinois and Blue Moon was a staple in my childhood! My sister and I have been in search of Blue Moon in Minneapolis and have yet to find anywhere that carries it on a regular basis! I will try the Cub- but whatever happened to the handmade version in the ice cream shops?

  12. I’m also from Michigan and love Blue Moon. Just had the first of the summer today. Brings back lots of memories from my childhood of sitting in the Purple Cow cafe in Meijer with my grandpa eating Blue Moon, getting it at a little ice-cream shop after swimming at the beach, or getting a cone after the 4th of July fireworks. Who knew that ice-cream could hold such dear memories?!?

  13. Pronounced “Jone-zees”, I always thought is was tutty fruity gum flavor. And Blue Moon is also a very good beer. 🙂

  14. I am in TOTAL SHOCK! Blue Moon Ice Cream is my ultimate favorite ice cream and I have googled it in the past to see if I could get it in Colorado and didn’t have any luck. Well, I just went onto the Kilwin’s website and there is one in Fort Collins, CO!!!! It’ about an hour drive from Denver, but I’m am so doing it this weekend!!!! The internet is improving! Thank you for posting this!!! I LOVE YOU MAN!!!!

  15. Oh my gosh, I don’t believe it. After all these years (30 years at least) I’ve been trying to find “blue moon” ice cream and every time I would go into an ice cream shop I would ask for it, of course no luck. My friends began to think I was making it up. I grew up in northern illinois and an old burger and ice cream chain called “Prince Castles” carried it. Prince Castles was next door to my great grandmother’s and everytime we would go visit her, we went to Prince Castles and I would get my “Blue Moon” ice cream. I feel for those who haven’t a notion of this unprecedented ice cream flavor. It’s the best! I now live in southern Florida and have a Kilwins only a few miles away from me. Can’t wait to go home!

  16. As a kid every Friday my dad would take us out for ice cream to Richardson Farm Dairy on Baldwin & I-75 which has now been paved over for a McDonalds and Great Lakes Crossings. Anyway, they had the best Blue Moon ice cream ever with small chunks of pineapple and I never strayed from ordering it. After graduating LOHS and moving on to Wayne State in Detroit, I moved to Florida. Sad to say, I’ve been here 20 years and have never come across anything like “my” blue moon, just the smurf and superman stuff – yuck. Now that I know that Kilwins carries a blue moon, I will try…I hope to not be disappointed…

  17. I LOVE Blue Moon. My family has vacationed in Ludington, MI (right down the road from Baldwin) for years and no visit is complete without a trip to the House of Flavors for some Blue Moon. They will put it on dry ice or ship it to you http://www.houseofflavors.com/set1.htm. I’ve been wanting to order some ever since I got home from my most recent visit a fews weeks ago.

  18. Wow, it is so weird to see another Karen that had a great grandmother who lived next door to Prince Castle. I am a Karen too. I live in Northen Illinois, and my grandma and grandpa lived three doors down from a Prince Castle. Every Halloween we would get a free ice cream cone. I do not remember if I got Blue Moon there or not, but my father had a pool hall and also sold ice-cream and he had Blue Moon. My sister and I loved it! How I long to have that taste again!

  19. OMG! I’m originally from Muskegon, Michigan, living in South Carolina. I crave blue moon ice cream which I had for the first time at Jones’ in Baldwin! I am going to Hilton Head this weekend and so great to know I can salve my craving for blue moon from the Kilwin’s there. Can’t believe it, just before going to Hilton Head, I think of blue moon, google it, and find this article! Heaven sent!

  20. Looing for the fomula for the Blue Moon flavor that Richarson’s Dairy in Waterford Michigan sold.
    Can you help me ?

  21. I need a Blue Moon Fix!! I’m originally from Traverse City,/Lansing Michigan, now living in Oregon. I have always told my friends about Blue Moon ice cream, and they immediately think “bubblegum flavored.” I really don’t know how to describe the flavor. Kind of vanillaie’ lemonie’? Anyway, those of you from the midwest know what I’m talking about. Thank you for the info & stirring up great memories of summers at Grams house on Grand Traverse Bay.

    Tara

  22. I too grew up in Northern Il. We would drive a very short distance into WI Beloit to be exact and visit a small mom and pop ice cream store downtown near the river. They had those big ice cream scoops and my dad and I would go in and order Blue Moon ice cream cones and carry them out for the whole family. Boy what great memories. I have found it in the store pretty much year round under the Cedar Crest label, does not compare to that little mom and pop store.

  23. I live in Michigan and grew up with Blue Moon Ice Cream, but I moved down towards Detroit and can’t seem to find it anywhere! But if you go to Harrison or Gladwin there are 3 ice cream places that serve Blue Moon!

  24. Well here in Ohio Hershey’s Ice Cream makes the best BLUE MOON …and because of Ohio’s strict labeling laws, it states that BLUE MOON is a mix of Pineapple, Vanilla, Cherry and Lemon flavorings with blue food color.. thats where the unique Tutti-Fruity taste comes from as some describe … sure there are other Blue moon’s out there and I’ve tried them, but Hershey’s is the finest BLUE MOON the others are just blue ice cream, they don’t get that flavor just right. … If you check Hershey’s website you can locate it, or just call them, they will tell you who carries it.

  25. I too stumbled across Blue Moon ice cream at Kilwin’s in St. Augustine on this past 4th of July. I stood in a 20 minute line and had a premonition that it was in there, and sure enough…it was!!! I grew up in Waterford, Michigan, and used to ride my Schwinn Scrambler (Banana Peeler) up to Richardson’s on Williams Lk. Rd. where I would receive my childhood vice…Blue Moon ice cream. Tasting it again for the very first time was as magical experience as any food could deliver! Thank you, God!

  26. I worked at the Richardson Farm Dairy on M-59 in Drayton Plains/Waterford, MI the summer of 1974. Had Blue Moon often growing up, usually at the Dixie Highway Store in Downtown Drayton Plains, MI. Thanks for the links, just in Charlotte last weekend, will have to try Kilwins on the next trip…

  27. Blue Moon is my favorite! I grew up in MI and moved to MD– no Blue Moon to be seen– but I went to Ludington for vacation and stopped at the Kilwins there to get my fix. Alas, it was not the very same flavor that I remembered (we always had London’s ice cream) but it was close enough 🙂

  28. Jone’s is THE BEST Blue Moon,
    then House of Flavors Ludington,
    can’t comment on Kilwin’s-
    but Cedar Crest out of Wisconsin does a good one too.

    There’s something about Jone’s…the milk is local- who knows, it’s just terrific.

  29. I really screwed up! I was just in Ludington, MI and although I indulged in the finest cultivated blueberries to be picked (Michigan’s leave New Jersey’s in the dust.), I neglected to have my blue moon ice cream. I had it last summer at the House of Flavors in Manistee. With its wonderful oblong metal dishes, low prices, and photos of Old Manistee, House of Flavors in Manistee is a blast from the past. I’ve since been informed from Michigan friends that Hudsonville Ice Cream makes the best Blue Moon. Who knew? — I’m originally from Hudsonville. Next summer I will go
    on a blue moon pilgrimage in Michigan and compare Hudsonville’s, House of Flavors;, and Jones’s blue moon. It’s hard to imagine Kilwins being any good, but I suspect there is a Kilwins is down by the Jersey shore. Maybe I’ll give them a chance.

  30. Over christmas I am going home, and I would love to have a blue moon fix.Ihave lived in phoenix for 15 years and never seen it there. The flavor of blue moon is really not like anything else,and for me just like others it holds magic, childhood memories, but mabey a longing for better times. Over the course of many summers in the late 70s and into the 80s my mother would drag me with her to Meijers to go shopping, (plainfeild ave in grand rapids) my only redemption would be getting some blue moon,and it was not always there. Those summers seemed to fly by. One taste and I am ten,riding my pink schwinn, transister in the basket blairing out shaun cassidey!!! I guess blue moon is just another thing that us michiganders share.

  31. Jones not only makes the best Blue Moon Ice Cream in the world, they make the BEST ICE CREAM on the PLANET!
    I insisted on visiting them in 1999 and was not let down after an absence of 20+ years. I intend to be back in 2011. We may have passed each other on the way to the counter at some point. I ran into a childhood frine there on my birthday.

  32. OMG!! This is so funny…I am pregnant right now and laid in bed last night talking to my husband about how much I was craving Blue Moon!! I grew up in Brighton Michigan and also share memories of going to Meijers with my mom for grocery shopping trips and having my blue moon ice cream cone for years!! I am missing it so much! I live in Dallas now and haven’t seen it in years but can’t stop thinking about it right now!! Hopefully this summer when we return to MI for a vacation I’ll be able to find some!

  33. I love Blue Moon! My husband tried it and hates it (something must be wrong with him). I currently live in Ohio and was able to find half gallon Blue Moon ice cream at Meijer. Also Nedley’s Hershey Ice Cream Store in Perrysburg, Ohio sells Blue Moon.

  34. Jone’s ice cream Blue Moon is the absolute best! I think theirs is primarily almond flavored. Other places muck it up by adding berry or lemon. Nope!! Just Jone’s classic almond please!!

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