Bean’s Ice Cream is a family owned and operated business in Southern Virginia (2 locations). Upon walking in, it is evident that this place is a local favorite and community focused. The vibe inside Bean’s is so welcoming and friendly!
Bean’s serves Hershey’s hand-dipped ice cream instead of making their own. A huge positive to this is the number of flavors they can serve at one time – instead of “something for everyone”, it is more like “many things for everyone” because they constantly carry 24-32 ice cream flavors. This is great until it makes picking a flavor(s) SO hard. They also do a great job of providing safe options to the allergy community as their flavors are clearly marked for nuts, wheat, and dairy (they currently have two Oat Milk options for non-dairy).
While we did not try any of their specialties on this trip, the sundaes, ice cream cakes, milkshakes, and local coffee all looked delicious and were devoured by other customers during our visit.
You get your money’s worth at Bean’s with generous portions for a reasonable price. I knew I wanted to get two flavors and this was only possible in a medium or large, and while I would have preferred this be available in a small, I did not protest getting more ice cream.
To go with the fun vibe, Bean’s provides a very cute and comfortable place to enjoy your treat. Plenty of seating is available indoors and outdoors and both are well decorated for Insta-worthy ice cream pictures.
The Flavor Review:
Cold Brew Caramocha (Natalie): This flavor included fudge chunks throughout which I instantly love and the ice cream lived up to the expected creamy consistency. This flavor was on the bottom of my cup and I feel like that led me to losing out on some of the flavor as it was overpowered by the Salty Caramel Truffle on top (see below). There was caramel swirled throughout the mocha ice cream base, which may have led to the easy blending of caramel flavor with the second scoop in my cup. With that being said, I don’t think a coffee flavor should be able to be easily overpowered so ultimately think the mocha was too subtle and lacked the cold brew experience I expected.
Salty Caramel Truffle (Natalie): This flavor was fantastic! I was very surprised to be so impressed with a mass-produced ice cream flavor, but I think Hershey’s proved themselves with the caramel ribbon throughout and thick chocolate caramel truffles in this flavor. I ultimately felt the caramel flavored ice cream base was a little too sweet and would even suggest that the caramel flavor may have been overdone with the ice cream being flavored caramel and all the add-ins including caramel. I would definitely order this flavor again and think it would mix well in a cup with a flavor like Moose Tracks.
Overall Scoops (out of 5):
Natalie: 4 scoops – This ice cream shoppe was super cute and very welcoming. The amount of ice cream flavor options and the variety of menu creations was impressive and definitely caters towards everyone’s sweet treat desires. The Hershey’s ice cream also gets major credit for being more impressive than I expected, since I’m partial to homemade ice cream.
The Inside Scoops 