Ginther's Swirls Ice Cream, Orlando

In my world, hot weather, and sunshine, call for one thing: soft serve ice cream.  In a cone.  With sprinkles.  So when I was recently in Orlando for a conference, and warm weather we most certainly had, I quickly searched for nearby ice cream.  I was delighted to find that a highly rated ice cream place, with soft serve (critical!), was located literally across the street from my hotel. I couldn't wait to visit.

Ginther's Swirls was my destination, a seemingly family run operation.  I don't know if they make their own hard serve ice cream, I rather doubt it given the building size, but they had no signage sharing dairy info.  I also never had the hard serve, but I can tell you that the soft serve, what I sought out, was fantastic.  I went every day I could while I was in town.  I'd return in a heartbeat, and highly recommend if you are ever in Orlando, over near Sea World and Aquatica.

Setting

Ice Cream Stand.

Ginther's Swirls doesn't look like much of anything.  Located next to an Applebees, next to a little strip mall.  The colors of the exterior don't really pop.  There is no elaborate, inviting signage.  In fact, if I hadn't done my research, I likely would not have noticed it, or even if I did, I wouldn't have thought it would be good.  But I'm glad I did.

Drive Through!

Ginther's has a drive through (which was totally novel to me ... drive through ice cream?!), and an outside ordering window.  There is a seating area inside as well, literally, just seating, no counters or ordering area.

I always walked up to order, as my hotel was across the street, but I never saw anyone else outside ordering.  I think most people do drive though?

Adorable Mini Picnic Table.

Outside are regular picnic tables with umbrellas for shade, plus these adorable mini ones for kids.  

Ice Cream

Ginther's Swirls is all about ice cream.  This is not the kind of ice cream stand that also has hot dogs, or even bags of chips.  Ice cream.  That said, the menu is quite extensive, took a while for me to take in, and, wow, I had such decision paralysis.  Yes, even though I visited knowing I wanted soft serve, I had that many options!  

Menu.

The Ginther's menu starts out simple enough.  Soft serve, in a dish, waffle, fancy waffle, or regular cone.  Six flavors available, including vegan fat-free Dole Whip, or 8 more available as Flavorbursts.  Kiddie, small, medium, or large sizes.  Hard ice cream, similar story, 8 flavors available there too.  Add sprinkles, dips (3 kinds), or other candy or sundae toppings if you please.

Speaking of sundaes, of course those are an option, in several forms, including classic banana splits, or on top of brownies, or as parfaits.  All the sundae sauces you could want to pick from (caramel, butterscotch, hot fudge, chocolate syrup, marshmallow, peanut butter, etc, etc), all the fruits (blueberry, cherry, peach, pineapple, raspberry, strawberry, etc), and all the candies (Snickers, Reese's PB cups or pieces, Oreos, M&Ms, Heath, yadda yadda).   If that isn't enough, there are specialty sundaes, and then ... all the milkshakes.  All the malts.  35, yes, 35 kinds available.  Also all available in child, small, medium, and large sizes, which I actually appreciated, as so many places have only one size available shakes (although, can you imagine their large, 32 ounce milkshake? Zomg, that's a lot of milk shake!)

But then there are also Twirls (soft serve with mix-ins), slushes (7 flavors), slush floats, Dole Whip floats, and Freezers (8 of these too, I think sorta like Frappucino/Coolattas?).  Again, everything available in 4 sizes.

So. Many. Choices.

The first time I went to Ginther's, I asked how the mint was, as sometimes mint flavored things can be rather medicinal.  "Do you wanna just try it?  I like it, but, you should try!", said the friendly staff member.  I took one bite, and I was hooked.  This was very, very good soft serve.

The texture of the soft serve was perfect, so creamy, great mouthfeel.  It melted well (also, fast in the 90* weather!), but, clearly high quality soft serve, far above average, and better than anything we have in San Francisco, and better than my hometown that prides itself in soft serve.  The only traditional soft serve that I've had that is better is still King Kone, where the flavors are just remarkable, and are all homemade. Ginter's uses a high quality base, clearly, but does use Flavor Burst (the Stripe version for all the extra flavors, and the blends for the vanilla/chocolate/strawberry/mint regular offerings).  That said, not a single flavor I had tasted artificial.  

During the course of my five day stay in Orlando, I visited four times, basically, every opportunity I had.  I always sampled something, and the staff were always happy to let me try.  I even got adventurous and tried the Blue Goo (cotton candy-like) and Bubblegum flavors, both of which shockingly weren't too sweet, and, although I didn't get them in a full size cone, I actually would totally consider in the future.  Not just for kids.

I never made it to the Twirls, nor a sundae, but if I were to return to Orlando, and stay nearby again, I certainly would like to try even more of the menu.

Vanilla & Mint (layered), Chocolate Sprinkles. 
Kiddie Cone. $2.25 + 0.90.

My first visit, I asked the server about the mint, and she immediately offered a sample.  I took one bite, and my decision was made.  This was both great soft serve, and excellent mint. No medicinal tasting mint here!  While I couldn't swirl it with anything, I could layer it, and opted for vanilla, just to have a bit more going on.  And, of course, sprinkles, because when I have a soft serve cone I need sprinkles, and I went for the chocolate ones as they would compliment the mint the best.

This was a great cone.   The vanilla was just vanilla, but perfectly creamy, and it was nice to balance the mint.  **** vanilla.

The mint was, um, minty, and as I said, not medicinal, not fake tasting, just, very pleasantly minty.  ****+.

The mint went great with the chocolate sprinkles, and they seemed high quality too - I don't think house made, but, they weren't the boring, waxy, flavorless kind.  Oh, and the cake cone?  NOT stale!  Perfectly crisp.  **** to those things too, just, notches above average really.

Overall, just, truly enjoyable, and the kiddie cone was the perfect size for me.  The $2.25 price for a kiddie is quite reasonable too.  **** overall, maybe even ****+, just in a league above most soft serve, particularly traditional flavors (e.g. not something like Soft Swerve, which is fantastic, but, its all about the ube and fun toppings ...)

Chocolate & Black Cherry Flavor Swirl, Chocolate Sprinkles.
Kiddie Cone. $2.25 + $1 + $0.90.

The next day, I was really craving chocolate, and almost went back to my hotel to eat either the chocolate cake I had left over, or the chocolate pudding cup I had, but, it was ice cream weather, and, hey, I really liked Ginther's the day before ... So to Ginther's I went.  

I don't normally go for chocolate ice cream (I love chocolate, just, not chocolate ice cream), but, as I said, I was in the mood, and so I asked to sample it first.  Like the other flavors, the consistency was perfect, but, moreover, it was the rare kind of chocolate ice cream I actually like, quite mild milk chocolate.  Well, then.  **** chocolate too?

But I also wanted to try a flavor swirl, and although Blue Goo and Bubble Gum actually kinda sounded fun, and I love Butter Pecan, I went for the Black Cherry at least minute, thinking that it would pair well with the chocolate in a black forest kind of way.  And yes, more chocolate sprinkles, because I'm a kid at heart, particularly when it comes to ice cream cones.

The black cherry was a Flavor Burst swirl, so, you could see the swirl of red sauce with the regular vanilla ice cream, but the cherry flavor was good, again, *not* fake tasting, even if it was.  I really liked it, and black cherry isn't a flavor I've had all that much in ice cream (I suppose Cherry Garcia is the real basis I have for cherry ice cream, not a flavor I ever went nuts for, but its my mom's favorite).  I was quite pleased that I chose to order it, without tasting first, and going a bit off my normal ordering style.  **** for this one, as well.  

The black cherry and chocolate and chocolate sprinkles all did go together perfectly, black forest vibes were strong, and I again loved this one.  ****.

Chocolate & Black Cherry Flavor Swirl, Chocolate Sprinkles.
Kiddie Cone. $2.25 + $1 + $0.90.

My final day in Orlando, I went back for the black cherry and chocolate combo, yup, of course with chocolate sprinkles.  

I still really liked the black cherry, although the flavor didn't seem quite as intense this time.  I was less into the chocolate this time, it was still better than most chocolate ice cream, but as I had mentioned, I don't generally like chocolate ice cream, and that feeling came through this time.  I think it would be great *swirled* with the black cherry, but only layering was available.  

I enjoyed my last cone, the ice cream, sprinkles, and cone were again high quality, but I did love this one slightly less.  ***+.

Blue Raspberry Slush Float (child size).  $2.85.

Ok, story time.  Back when I was a child, I remember loving blue raspberry slush with vanilla soft serve, from my hometown place, Dairy Twirl.  I don't remember what they called it, but, basically, think ice cream float, but with slush instead of soda, and soft serve.  (If anyone reading this is from Lebanon NH and remembers what they called it ...).  They stopping having it at some point, and I've never seen anywhere else have it.  Until that is, I went to Ginther's Swirls.  

Now, I adored the soft serve cones I had, and I was planning to get another (or maybe go for their version of a McFlurry/Razzle/whatever you call soft serve with mix-ins), but, it was really quite hot (90*+) and icy slush actually sounded fantastic, and, um, I had a moment of nostalgia, and decided that I needed a blue raspberry slush float ... even though I knew it would be crazy sweet and I haven't wanted a slushy thing like this in many, many, many years.

Slushes, and thus Slush Floats, are available in a bunch of fruity flavors: blue raspberry, cherry, mango, orange, pina colada, strawberry, and watermelon, and 4 sizes (I went for the child size, 12 ounce, but you can get up to 32 ounce ... which, um, would be SO MUCH SUGAR!).  I obviously had to get the blue raspberry, because, #nostalgia.  By default, they come with vanilla soft serve, but you can change it out if you want.  The soft serve, e.g. "float", is just $0.75 more than slush.

I was impressed by just how much ice cream was in it when she handed it over.  I'm pretty sure there was as much ice cream here, if not more, than in my kiddie cones!  The ice cream, just vanilla as I didn't want to clash with the blue raspberry, was as fantastic as all the cones.  Really, just soo creamy, perfect mouthfeel, melts beautifully.  Really above average soft serve, ****.

The slush was, well, blue raspberry slush.  It was very sweet, it was very fake blue raspberry tasting, and, yes, it was refreshing sorta in the icy nature, I pretty quickly realized that my love of these belonged in my childhood past, and this was just too sweet, and too much sugar.  It made me wish it was root beer, or something less crazy sweet.

I did still really like the refreshing icy slush + creamy rich ice cream balance, and I found it fun to eat-drink, but, I couldn't finish all that blue raspberry slush, just, too much sugaryness, even for me.

**** soft serve, ***+ average quality nicely icy slush, **** for nostalgia and fun of eating, but, *** overall as I couldn't handle the sweet.  I wouldn't get another, but, hey, it was fun to try it (and then be the adult walking around with a blue tongue ...).

Cookie dough / Reese's Pieces / Heath Bar (sides).  $1.10 each.

Ok, this was a case of FOMO.  My last day, I almost got a Swirl, as I hadn't tried those yet.  I did almost want the experience of eating soft serve, with a spoon, with mix-ins.  But I also wanted another cone.  So, I decided to get the mix-ins on the side, so I could eat my cone, and then start adding in things if I wanted.  The Reese's Pieces were mini, which works great with ice cream.  Heath Bar was little bits, again, great for mixing in.  These were brand name things, so, entirely met expectations.  The cookie dough was the one I was most interested in, hoping for homemade, but these were definitely not.  That said, they were soft, sweet, buttery, and enjoyable.

Standard, quality toppings.  ***+.