Ice Cream Wars: Rainbow Snow (Lebanon Valley Food Critics)

Editor’s Note: Last year, Michael and Nicole Borrell began reviewing Lebanon Valley’s restaurants and eating attractions as the Lebanon Valley Food Critics. Since then, the couple has aimed to offer unbiased reviews of the eating and drinking establishments the Lebanon Valley has to offer. LebTown is pleased to be partnering with LVFC to share these reviews with our readers. Bon appétit!

Welcome to another exciting series, the “Ice Cream Wars.” We will be traveling across the Valley to find the best in local ice cream.

After one critic returned home from a business trip, we decided to catch up on our Ice Cream Wars series on Sunday night and visit Rainbow Snow and Ice Cream in Palmyra. Located on North Railroad Street, you can’t miss this brightly painted building. Rainbow Snow offers walk up service and tables behind the building to enjoy their ice cream and water ice treats.

We usually make at least one stop a year here and this year we noticed that they have a different system for ordering. You order on one side of the door and the other side is where you pick up. Before COVID, Rainbow Ice had indoor seating, but we never went in because we always sat outside.

We brought along our guest critics tonight, so we tried four different options. We took into consideration some of your suggestions. I got the “Banana Thing” ($6.85) which was a banana bread like streusel dessert with ice cream and caramel sauce drizzled on top. I opted for peanut butter soft serve, which is my favorite thing to order here. It’s so rich and flavorful! It did make for a VERY rich dessert, and I made sure that everyone got at least a taste if not more. I was stuffed!

Another critic got the stuffed “snowball” ($3.94) which is their version of a gelati… a layer of grape water ice, vanilla soft serve, another layer of grape water ice, topped with another swirl of ice cream. The vanilla is also rich and creamy, and the grape water ice had a good flavor. It made for a good blend together.

Our guest critics got a medium (two scoops) of peanut butter ripple hard ice cream ($4.63) and a small cookies and cream milkshake ($5.26). The critic that got the peanut butter ripple stated it was also rich and creamy and he finished it off quickly.

The cookies and cream milkshake were mostly devoured by our littlest critic, she stole it right from Gigi with her sheepish little grin! Gigi remarked it was very good, a nice consistency, not too thick and not too thin.

Our take: Rainbow Snow offers a lot of great frozen treat options. Whether it’s hand dipped or soft serve, sundaes, and water ice, you really can’t go wrong with your choice. They may have the BEST peanut butter soft serve, such an unusual find as most soft ice cream places you see typical offerings of vanilla, chocolate, twist and sometimes raspberry.

We give this place .

If you have a restaurant you would like us to visit or review, whether a place you like or are nervous to try, please message us on Facebook or email lvfoodcritics@outlook.com and let us know. We thank everyone for the recommendations and the kind words we have received.