Its been over a month since I moved to Wisconsin from eastern Kansas. And I brought my sweet tooth with me.
I grew up in northern Illinois before living in Lawrence, Kansas, home of the University of Kansas Jayhawks. And downtown Lawrence had a wonderful ice cream shop called Sylas & Maddy’s. I was such a frequenter of the shop that I bet my ice cream orders alone covered a month of its rent.
But that shop is now eight hours away. I need a new one. So I laced up my shoes, grabbed my press badge and opened up the results of a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reader survey on the best local custard destination to find a new favorite spot.
I’ll start by saying I’ve almost never had custard in my life. I’ve had my fair share of Culver’s, and tried Kopp’s once. My plan was to just become a Culver’s regular, because that custard is pretty good, but my girlfriend isn’t allowing me to default to Culver’s over other local staples.
Me, and photojournalist Kiesen Williams, went to four top spots from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s custard guide: Kopp’s, Leon’s, Oscar’s Frozen Custard and Gilles Frozen Custard.
We walked into each spot and asked for a small dish of their most popular flavor. That was:
Let me tell you, custard is a creamy delight.
My Ben & Jerry’s days: retired. My waistline: due for an expansion. My credit card: might get worn out at any of the four spots.
It was after the fourth custard that I was feeling particularly full, and grateful that Wisconsin is America’s Dairyland. But it wasn’t always this way. Wisconsin used to be a major wheat producing state.
From 1840 to 1880, a sixth of the country’s wheat came from Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. But then soil exhaustion, insect infestation and cheaper wheat from other states convinced Wisconsin farmers to switch to dairy.
And that led me to getting paid to eat custard.
This is probably the part of the story where you’d like a review of each custard place, but my review is the same for each. 10/10, simply perfect with no notes. My only regret is that I couldn’t convince my editors to let me buy the largest size of each dish.
But, I have to admit, this really just tastes like ice cream to me.
Tim Rech, a Pennsylvania resident, was eating custard outside of the Kopp’s I went to. He assured me that custard and ice cream are not the same at all.
“Oh my gosh yeah, there is a difference between ice cream and custard,” he said.
And there is. The primary difference is egg yolks and how it’s made. The Food Network tells me that custard is made with machines that whip less air into the product, making is denser. Which I suppose I did notice, and I do love a denser, heavier desert.
Rech makes sure to stop by Kopp’s every time he is in town. To him, Kopp’s is as good as is gets, and readers agreed. Kopp’s was the top answer in our survey when we asked readers what their favorite place was.
For me, I don’t think I’ll have a favorite or go-to spot. It’ll probably be whatever is closest to me when my sweet tooth is calling. But I did love that Mudd Pie from Oscar’s — that I plan to eat a lot of.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: I tried the best Milwaukee-area custard spots. Here’s how it went.
Reporting by Blaise Mesa, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Blaise Mesa, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
