I went to a spooning party this afternoon, and my husband wasn’t even there.

To clarify: Loblolly Creamery, which operates out of the Green Corner Store on Main Street in Little Rock, had a Spooning Party today, where visitors got to try several new flavors they’re testing and rate them on qualities such as taste, texture and body.

The fun and funky Loblolly folks just graduated from the Penn State University Ice Cream Short Course, which is apparently a lot more fun than it even sounds, despite this rather dry web page. One of the ideas they learned is how to do a tasting party, so they did just that today.

I took my daughter and her friend, and we came packing with our very own spoons, as encouraged in Loblolly’s ads for the event. We tried dainty little cups of Better than Ever Milk Chocolate, New & Improved Buttermilk, Banoffee (banana with toffee bites), Cherry & Gin Sorbet, Black Sesame Coconut (vegan) and Frappe (a light coffee flavor).

Everything, of course, was fabulous, as I knew it would be. I’d heard quite a bit about Loblolly recently from fellow blogger Michael Roberts (Arkansas Foodies and Eat Arkansas), and I’d had a small bit of their wares over at Argenta Market and at the Green Corner Store during the recent Cornbread Festival. But it was especially nice to be a part of the process, helping them tweak and choose flavors to be sold in the future.

Before we left, the girls got full scoops of the Frappe flavor, and I helped myself to a (gluten free!) pumpkin spice sandwich with some of the New & Improved Buttermilk inside. I described the smooth tanginess of the ice cream to my daughter’s friend as a “slap in yo face!”

The spooning event will continue today until 4 p.m., so if you get a chance, run by. If not, you’re sure to see some of these flavors in the near future churning out of the Loblolly Creamery. (I know, I couldn’t resist…)