Fresh from Maine: Gifford's "lobster" ice cream

Only in New England would you find seafood in your ice cream. Sort of.

Maine Lobster Tracks is a cool new scoop from Gifford's Ice Cream, a Maine-based company whose more pedestrian flavors have earned recognition at the World Dairy Expo, an industry organization that issues the ice cream equivalents of Emmys and Academy Awards.

(In the above photo, provided by Gifford's, a young ice cream buff prepares to chow down on a cone scooped high with Maine Lobster Tracks.)

Headquartered in Skowhegan, the family-owned company boasts other local tastes such as Maine Birch Bark - vanilla ice cream with white chocolate chips mixed with chocolate covered cashews - and Maine Black Bear, vanilla ice cream spiced up with such extras as black raspberry swirl.

This year's crustacean-inspired Maine Lobster Tracks starts with vanilla ice cream, and other ingredients include red-colored chocolate cups filled with caramel and swirls of eclair crunch.

Customers sometimes grimace when they ask if the name of Maine Lobster Tracks rings true.

But there is no real lobster meat in the ice cream, said Lindsay Gifford, the chain's vice president of sales, though customers ask all the time.

"They make one of those faces," said Gifford. "Then when they taste it, they enjoy it."

In addition to inventing wacky flavors, Gifford's made dairy history of sorts by winning the title of "World's Best Chocolate Ice Cream" at the recent World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin, which drew more than 65,000 attendees from 80 countries.

Two years ago, Gifford's won "World's Best Vanilla Ice Cream." Entries are judged on flavor, body and texture, color and appearance, quality assurance, and melting quality.

Gifford's doesn't just sell ice cream at its ice cream stands in Maine; its products can also be found in some supermarkets.

In the Greater Boston area, its flavors, including Maine Lobster Tracks, are available in Roche Bros. stores, Sudbury Farms, select Shaw's Supermarkets, Crosby's Marketplace, and other small independent markets, Gifford's said.
(By Elizabeth Campbell, Globe correspondent)