La Diperie, Montreal

Soft serve ice cream.  It is what my summer dreams are made of.

Dreams, because in San Francisco, "summer" is a joke, and soft serve just isn't really a thing.  Hence why whenever I visit the east coast of the US, or Sydney, all I do is eat soft serve.  Such a rare treat for me.

I'm glad soft serve has continued to flourish there though, because the quality of soft serve shops just keeps going up.  My childhood haunts of Dairy Twirl and Ice Cream Fore-U just don't compare, not just to crazy Instagram sensational places (yes, I'm looking at you Aqua S and your cones with cotton candy wrapped around them), but even to traditional ice cream stands that have just really increased quality like King Kone, or ones with sourcing you can't beat, located on their own dairy farm with maple sugar shack, like Mac's Maple.

La Diperie isn't in my hometown, but rather, in Montreal, where I visited for a very quick 2 day business trip.  My list of desserts to try included 2 things: BeaverTails and soft serve dip.  Because, apparently, Montreal takes their soft serve dip very very seriously.  There are sections of town where every third store has soft serve with dips.  Seriously.  Most look fairly generic, but just my list of places with artisan dips and toppings was at least 10 long, in a few block radius of my hotel.

La Diperie is a chain in the area, started only in 2014, but already with 25 locations.  There were at least 4 within easy walking distance of my hotel.  I visited 2.  And returned to one of them within 10 minutes.  Uh, yeah.

I selected La Diperie for several reasons: large dip selection, full customization allowed (some places are pre-set combos of dips and toppings only), and a great range of sizes, including an adorable mini cone.

2 Visits ... in 10 Minutes.  Don't judge.

So I went.  Twice.  In one night.  Ok, twice in 10 minutes.  Please don't judge.  I recommend this move actually.

I went to walk around and eat my cone, and realized that the minis really were small enough I could get another.  I'm really glad I went with the mini actually, because 2 totally different ones was way more fun that 1 larger one.  My server told me this is actually really common, and they recommend it to people who can't make up their mind.

Both of my cones were quite successful, and so I decided to check out another location a day later.

Setting: Old Town

My first visit was to their location in Old Montreal, center of touristville, but, down a side street.

Store Front.

Curb appeal?  Yup!

This location was down a quiet side street, in a stone building with bright blue planters.

Interior.

Inside is small though, no seating at all, just a place to order and pay and get out.  No bathroom facilities.

Menu.

The menu was all in french. I struggled through it, but did ask a bunch of questions.

To start, you pick a cone or dish from 5 sizes: mini , petit, regular, grand, and waffle for a base price.  From there, you can add a dip for $1, from their extensive line up.  And then, toppings for $0.65, again, a decent line up.

I love the mini size because if you want just a snack, or a little treat after dinner, its a great size to feel like you had something, but not too much.  The next size up, "petite", is about the size of kiddie cone at most places, and then they have regular and large sizes too if you want a full treat.  I wish more places had something like this.

You can also opt for some pre-designed creations with specific dip and topping combos, build your own ice cream sandwiches (pick your cookies, pick your dip, pick your toppings), milkshakes, or, if you are vegan and got dragged here by someone, a vegan popsicle.

La Diperie has only vanilla soft serve, but it was perfectly creamy and rich, certainly good base soft serve.

Some locations also carry other desserts like lava cakes and profitteroles, and raw vegan cookie dough.

30 Types of Dip.

"More than 30 pure Belgian chocolate flavors to choose from.  Great classics such as milk, dark chocolate, caramel or surprising ones, like activated charcoal, ginger, lemonade, lavender, pistachios."

Now the hard part.  The dips.  Yes, literally, 30 of them.  Not made from wax and chemicals, but from white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or 70% dark chocolate, although none were labelled with what type of base they used, and I felt annoying asking.  Chocolats Favoris labels these nicely.

Flavors range from boozy bailey's, to classic dark chocolate with fleur de sel, to kid's favorite Oreo.  And yes, you can ask to try them first.

Since my visit was at night, I limited myself to the white chocolate based offerings.  I sampled a few before making my pick.  I was sad that they were sold out of the one I wanted though, a white chocolate based "Birthday Cake" flavor.

Toppings.

"More than 20 types of toppings. 20 original and classic toppings to put the finishing touch on your culinary creation!"

And then, toppings!  All types of nuts (almonds, peanuts, hazelnuts, pistachios, etc), candies (M&Ms, Skors, Kit Kat, etc), cereals (Rice Krispies, Lucky Charms, etc), cookies (Oreo, graham crackers, etc), and many many more.  They didn't actually have a full 20 toppings at this location though.

Setting:  St Catherine

My next visit was to their St Catherine location, 2 days later.  Don't worry, I had soft serve dip the next night too, I just decided to mix it up and go to Chocolats Favoris instead (review coming soon!).

The St. Catherine location was actually a very different experience, with a far bigger menu, dip, and topping selection.  This one did have the profiteroles, "Razzles", and other blended items.

Ordering Area.

This location has no interior, just a window on the walking plaza to order.   And a line, of course.

Seating.

It does have seating, an outside area on the walking mall closed off with a few tables.

White Chocolate Dips.

And a far bigger dip selection.  And this dip selection was arranged starting with white chocolate, then milk, then dark, then 70% dark.  So much easier.

They had all the same ones the previous location had, plus more that I was particularly excited to see, like the birthday cake that was sold out at the other location.

Milk, Dark, 70% Dark Dips.

And then, even more milk, dark, and 70% dips.  Since this visit was daytime, I opened up to hte possibilities of chocolate, and there were some amazing sounding choices.  Popcorn!

Toppings: Set 1.

They also have far far more toppings, two different sets of jars.  This set was mostly the same as the other location.

Toppings: Set 2.

But the other side had more fun things, like some unlabeled blue candy things I decided to get.

Here you can also see the cone line up.  They actually use different size cones for each size, and it was nice to see them side by side.  The mini cone is sooo cute.  A waffle cone or chocolate waffle cone are also available.

My Cones

At the first location, I got a mini ... and then another mini 10 minutes later as I wasn't quite satisfied (I did want a full size dessert, and, I didn't love my first dip).  At the second location, I actually had a full dessert prior (oops), but still wanted one last cone, so got another mini.  I loved the size.

I sampled a few dips over my three visits, besides the ones I got, including:

• White Chocolate Pistachio: a decent dip that I was worried would be "too much" after a while.
• White Chocolate Maple: A great sweet maple one that I just wasn't in the mood for.
• White Chocolate Anniversary Birthday Cake: Pretty color, but didn't taste like anything besides sweet.
• White Chocolate Popcorn: Didn't taste any popcorn.  Was hoping for sweet and salty and that didn't happen.
• Milk Chocolate Mint: This was good, minty, chocolately.  I would have gotten it but I wasn't quite in the mood for mint.

Dip Close Up.

A few things were consistent at all locations.

First, the base ice cream, only vanilla.  The ice cream was good, rich, creamy, and it melted nicely as I ate it.  Better than average soft serve really, and it isn't even the focus of the shop.

Second, the style of dip shell.  It isn't as thin as ice cream stands that use the commercial waxy chemical shells, but it isn't nearly as thick as other chocolate shops that feature dips.  Here you can see how thin the layer is.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Dip, Peanuts, Rainbow Sprinkles. Mini. $1.50 + $1 + $0.65 + $0.65.

For my first cone, I opted for peanut butter in the end without trying it, since I do always love peanut butter.  I dipped it in crushed peanuts and rainbow sprinkles.  This one was the prettiest, look how perfect it was!

The peanut butter I didn't love.  It was good, but actually just too intense.  Thick, sooo much peanut butter.  I did like the crunch of the nuts and the sprinkles on the outside though.

I think a thinner layer of dip would have worked fine, maybe a larger size with less surface area outside and more ice cream perhaps, or even something like chocolate ice cream to combat the strong peanut butter.  It was good, don't get me wrong, but even in the small size, I grew sick of it.

I was glad I got the mini size, since I didn't love the peanut butter after a while.

White Chocolate Cookie Dough Dip, Skor, Rainbow Sprinkles. Mini. $1.50 + $1 + $0.65 + $0.65.

For my second cone that day, I went for the cookie dough (also white chocolate base), since it was clear I was craving sweet.  And I added crushed Skor bars (toffee candy) and rainbow sprinkles again because I loved them on the first cone.

This one was made by the same person, but came out a fairly different shape.  More like a Christmas tree than a perfect cone.

The cookie dough dip was a great choice, not that it tasted like cookie dough, but it was sweet and satisfying.  Creamy from the white chocolate, and thick, but not intense in the way the peanut butter was.  If I lived here and came regularly, I'd get it again, but with limited time during a short stay, I'd rather explore more options.

The Skor candy bits though were not good, somehow kinda soft, which was entirely wrong.  Every bite I took with them had a really unpleasant soft chew to it.  I'm sure that if they were fresher they would be great, as the toffee was good.

I loved the rainbow sprinkles again, not just for the looks, but also the crunch.

70% Dark Chocolate Black Coal Dip, Blue Things, Rainbow Sprinkles. Mini. $1.50 + $1 + $0.65 + $0.65.

My final visit was daytime, so I went all out and got not just chocolate, not milk chocolate, not dark chocolate, but the 70% dark chocolate.  And went for the charcoal flavor, without trying it.

This cone was thinner and taller, and not quite so straight.  Mine was much better made than the others in front of me though, they also all had minis, and theirs were all seriously slanting!

I added the rainbow sprinkles because they were so good on the other cones, and, uh, randomly, the blue things that I couldn't identify.  The crunch from both was great, but they really were just sweet things.

The dip was ... ok?  It just really wasn't very intense chocolate.  Far more chocolately than your average ice cream shop waxy dip obviously, but certainly not as intense of chocolate as you get at the other dip shops around town that truly are real chocolate shops.