Dessert: The Most Important Meal of the Day

If you have a sweet tooth, Florence has your fix! Miami Ice and Trowbridge's are two of my favorites. And I finally marked Frios off my bucket list. I mean is there anything better than a frozen treat on a southern hot day? I think not.

If you are a shaved ice type of person, Miami Ice has the BEST. They have 91 flavors, 9 toppings, and 85 combinations (sweet, sour, and fruity). The options are endless. My personal fave is the Charlie Sheen (cheese cake, tiger blood, marshmallow, and pop rocks), also referred to as "Crack in a Cup." My second favorite would be the Catalina Wine Mixer (pina colada, strawberrry, and cream). They are open 12pm-10pm Sunday-Thursday and 12pm-11pm Friday and Saturday!

Trowbridge's was opened by Paul Trowbridge in 1918 (two years away from celebrating their centennial anniversary!!). He actually developed his own ice cream recipe, orange pineapple. They used to make the ice cream in house, but they sold their recipe to Purity and now they serve that brand. They have about 18 different flavors! You can get it in a cone, dish, half pint, whole pint...They have malts, shakes, sundaes, and ice cream soda. Trowbridge's has a dessert called 'Oh My Gosh', it is a brownie topped with ice cream, caramel, whipped cream, and a cherry. It is also a sandwich shop, the chicken salad is fantastic. They are open 9am-5pm Monday-Saturday, so if you make it in time for breakfast get a ham biscuit! Check out all the old photos inside too!

Now checked off the bucket list, I got a pop from Frios! They are a newer business to downtown Florence located inside Court Street Market. They have both creamy and fruity flavors. I really had a hard time choosing from blueberry lemonade, blueberry cheesecake, and banana pudding. I went with banana pudding, I have no regrets! Their hours are Monday-Saturday 11am-6pm.

As the semester is coming to an end and you are loaded down with projects, papers, and finals remember this quote from an unknown author, "Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not!" So consider taking a break. As Tom and Donna from Parks and Rec would say, "treat yo' self!"