Bar Harbor is the gateway to Acadia National Park and it offers no shortage of calories to fuel you up for your hiking. Like any good resort town, quaint homemade ice cream shops and country stores peddling fudge-y goodness abound. Here’s a quick guide to the best and the less best. (Spoiler alert: they’re all pretty good.)
Jordan Pond Ice Cream and Fudge
If you have one place to grab a sweet treat in Bar Harbor, you can’t go wrong with Jordan Pond Ice Cream and Fudge. Not only is their ice cream absolutely delicious but their fudge is ultra creamy and full of very well-balanced flavor. Our favorite fudge was chocolate coconut which tasted like an almond joy on steroids (in a good way). Their vanilla praline fudge was also incredibly rich and creamy.
The homemade Ice cream at Jordan Pond is quite delicious, with flavors trending toward classic, like cookie dough, chocolate implosion and salted caramel. They also have a requisite blueberry ice cream because we are in Maine, after all. The folks working here are super kind and liberal with samples. Despite that, the line moved quickly!
It’s right across the street from Agamont Park which is a perfect place to find a bench and people watch while you enjoy your treats.
Final Scoop: Jordan Pond Ice Cream and Fudge is our clear overall winner based on ambiance, staff interaction, and the most important fact that both their ice cream and their fudge are top notch.
CJ’s Big Dipper
CJ’s Big Dipper is easy to spot on Main Street, with it’s red and white striped awning and old school signage. The quaintness fades a bit however, when you walk inside.
The red formica counter, 12×12 floor tile and fiberglass drop ceilings exude a distinctly un-quaint 80s vibe. CJ’s doesn’t sell fudge, just ice cream and frozen yogurt. They have a lot of ice cream flavors but it didn’t look particularly special or homemade.
We opted instead for their blueberry frozen yogurt, swirled with vanilla, and it was out of this world. There is no way I’m ever trying CJ’s ice cream now, because if I return it will solely be to experience more of that delicious blueberry bliss.
CJ’s is directly across the street from a park called the Village Green, and they have a small outdoor seating area just outside their shop. It’s cash only here, but they have an ATM available inside.
Final Scoop: the ambiance leaves something to be desired and being cash only is a slight pain, but their blueberry soft serve is worth it!
Mount Desert Island Ice Cream
Mount Desert Ice Cream has several shops, including a couple in Japan. However, as the name suggests, Maine is where it all began!
In contrast to Jordan Pond Ice Cream and Fudge, this shop features ice cream in an array of adventurous flavors, like fresh basil and blackstrap banana. They are made in small batches with many local ingredients, and all looked quite good. I got a scoop of salty peanut butter and Brian got The Dude, which is an ice cream version of a white russian cocktail. (The name is a reference to the movie The Big Lebowski.)
Both were exceptionally creamy, with good flavor, although mine wasn’t as snazzy as it could have been. Maybe due to the wild flavors, or the fact that it’s small batch, but Mount Desert doesn’t give samples. They were not too friendly about that fact, either. Of all the places we visited, this was by far the most unenthusiastic, “over-it” service: ice cream with an eye roll.
Over the years this Bar Harbor ice cream shop has received positive press from various outlets like Food and Wine, and USA Today but were put on the map most distinctly when the Obamas visited in 2010.
Final Scoop: I’m not sure if the accolades went to their heads or we were just there on an off day, but Mount Desert Island Ice Cream was the least welcoming and the least friendly: no samples, no smiles, but also…no other customers. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
Acadia Country Store
Acadia Country Store is just what you’d imagine a country store in a resort town would be: full of t-shirts, mugs, kitchen gadgetry, Maine themed preserves and other jarred foodstuffs, complemented by creaky wooden floors, antiqued display cases, and a long counter featuring a huge variety of homemade fudge!
The young women behind the counter let us sample everything we wanted, which was so fun because there really was an incredible selection. Brian also “talked shop” at length with one of them who was here from Siberia on a summer work-abroad program, and studying to be a software engineer.
We ended up buying a bigger piece of the snickers fudge, and sea salt caramel. Between the two, the snickers was the clear winner. It was creamy with the right amount of caramel, peanut, and nougat mixed in. The sea salt caramel tasted mostly like sugar and marshmallow creme – not a lot of texture or flavor nuance.
Final Scoop: If you love a wide selection and interesting flavor combinations, this place is heaven. They will give you a sample of whatever you want, which makes the experience even sweeter! The fudge is good and the service is friendly and laid back.
Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium
Ben and Bill’s Chocolate Emporium has it all. This Bar Harbor ice cream shop also sells homemade fudge and a huge selection of candies and chocolates.
Their original store started in Massachusetts in 1958 but they expanded to Bar Harbor way back in 1980. Here, you’ll find a shop that has finally embraced what you’ve been expecting from a Maine sweets shop all along…a lobster flavored ice cream! Originally created as a joke, the vanilla ice cream with lobster chunks has remained steadfast on the menu (along with other, more normal flavors).
Brian and I skipped the ice cream though, and went straight for their homemade fudge, trying their rum flavor, and a more classic peanut butter chocolate one. The rum fudge was incredibly good while the peanut butter chocolate was slightly too mushy for our tastes. Their sample policy was reasonable and nicely explained to us: no samples after 7pm in order to keep the line moving along.
Final Scoop: A bonafide New England institution, well worth a stop in. But if you miss it, don’t worry – you can order candy directly from their website and have it shipped to you.
Cherry on Top
Although Bar Harbor is a small town, it packs a lot of punch for those with a sweet tooth. We ate all we could while we were there and enjoyed every last bit of it. However, if your vacation plans don’t include consuming 5,000 calories of sweets, hopefully this list will help you hone in on what’s most important to you, so you can enjoy your best dessert while visiting Mount Desert!
[…] clothing, souvenirs, jewelry, and quirky home goods. In between those shops are restaurants, bars, ice cream parlors, and candy stores featuring a million flavors of homemade fudge! We went to as many as we could, […]