Spiraling into Vermont's Maple Creamee Heaven

A Slice of Summer Not To Be Missed

A partially licked Vermont Maple Creamee topped with a maple sugar-coffee dusting at Silloway Farm in Randolph Center, Vermont. I couldn’t wait to get a taste before taking a photo!

August, 2022

A Vermont maple creamee might look like soft-serve ice cream, all twisted around into a cone or a cup, but it’s not. The classic creamee is made with real Vermont maple syrup and has a slightly higher fat content than soft-serve ice cream. It’s then pushed into cup or cone using lever and spigot into a spiral of summer delight. Some spell it “creamee”, while others use “creemee”. (Either way, it sounds the same so they’re both fine with me.) A Vermont maple creamee is yours to enjoy at any number of Vermont sugar houses, food trucks, drive-ins, diners, and restaurants scattered around the State. These lovely desserts are creamier than soft-serve, they melt a bit less quickly, and they’re now starting to make an appearance in other states. Vermont, however, is where the maple creamee scene originated, and it’s where it’s at its best.

My latest foray into creamee heaven was at Silloway Maple in Randolph Center, Vermont. It’s a back-country drive over dirt roads, past farms and fields, from Exit 3 (and also Exit 4) off Interstate 89. Just getting there is beautiful, but wait for that creamy, textured taste of soft-spiraled maple ice cream on your tongue to decide if this place is worth the trip. My palate on a hot summer day, while sitting at one of the Farm’s shaded picnic tables watching their two goats Salt and Pepper roam their pen, screamed a thoroughly delighted, “absolutely worth the trip!” to me. Of course, it only took me 30 minutes to drive there from Sharon, Vermont, but I think its worth the trip from just about anywhere.

My creamee partner, Margaret, communes with Pepper, the friendly goat.

And here’s Salt, Pepper’s partner, soon to be perched high upon the wooden reel.

While Yankee Magazine omits Silloway Maple in its article on Vermont Maple Creamees, Dig In Vermont includes it on its list of Vermont Maple Creamee Trail places to visit.

The Silloway Farm maple creamee menu. Sizes are determined by the number of swilrls made in cone or cup.

The Silloway Family has been sugaring in Randolph Center since 1942. A peek inside their sugarhouse to find a maple creamee treat tells the family story with plenty of history through photos and sugaring implements. These include a massive arch used for boiling sap into syrup, old posters and blue ribbons, and the true feel of a working farm. Outside are stacks of wood drying in the summer sun waiting to fire the arch in spring, along with some fun play toys for kids on a sand pile in the dooryard. The two goats, Salt and Pepper, add to the farm feel, as do the sap lines running into a silo-shaped stainless steel storage tank behind the sugar house. The long-range view across corn fields and rolling hills can’t be beat as you enjoy each successive lick of maple creamee swirling goodness.

Fun for the family just outside the farmhouse door.

Quite the impressive arch for boiling sap into syrup!

As for taste, how does this compare to other creamees? My son tells me the best maple creamee is always the one you’re eating at the moment. Absent a side-by-side taste test, it’s hard to gauge the quality of one maple creamee versus another. And who can take the time to watch a creamee melt as you drive to find another? My advice is to savor your maple creamee in the moment as if you’ll never have another.

A tasting room (above) with 3 grades of syrup, along with an array of real Vermont maple products for gifts and other delights (below) offers far more than your average food truck or diner for this Vermont maple creamee experience.

My Silloway Farm maple creamee blew my mind, offering me a glimpse of how heaven as a dessert must taste. It was wonderfully textured on my tongue, deliciously soft and inviting, and a welcome and sweet relief from the heat of a hot August day. My maple creameee was also topped with a maple-coffee sugar dusting. That added a bit to the sweetness, while framing the cone with a mildly tart coffee overtone. Overall, this was a 5-star experience the Michelin-star gourmet gastronomists should all experience. How‘s that for a recommendation?

Make the drive, taste the goodness, enjoy the trip. Details are on the Silloway Maple website. Check the hours (creamees are served Thurs, 10-5, Fri/Sat, 10-7, Sun, 2-5), or call before you visit. Marilyn or her mom are happy to chat.

Marilyn (and her mom) were there on a Saturday when I visited, happy to talk about the farm, serve up their delicious creamees, and chat about almost anything else on a hot day.

Dave Celone writes from Sharon, Vermont where he plans to seek out and taste more Vermont maple creamees in and around the VT Upper Valley region this summer and fall. Stay tuned for more, or start your own maple creamee adventure at Silloway Maple!