Photo by Peggy Grodinsky

Years ago, Ben & Jerry’s used to make an ice cream sandwich that, if memory serves, wedged a rectangle of vanilla ice cream between slender brownies. I loved that goody. I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many of them I ate at a time I lived near the original ice cream store in Vermont. And then one day, it was gone – poof – apparently discontinued. I have pined for it ever since.

So imagine my delight earlier this summer when I saw a sweet, retro sign for the Twin Tin Sandwich at Twin Swirls Ice Cream on Brighton Avenue in Portland, which is within easy ice-cream distance from my house – in other words, a pleasant 10-minute walk. The sign read: “Soft serve ice cream sandwiched between 2 delicious cookies from Tin Pan Bakery!” In my mind’s eye, I amended, or extended, that last punctuation mark: !!!!

Tin Pan Bakery, just a few doors down from Twin Swirls, has a knack for making perfect renditions of classic cookies and has outdone itself here. The vehemently buttery, butterscotch-ey chocolate chip cookies sandwich a vanilla-chocolate soft serve swirl that tastes like summer. The whole package is a study in creamy-chewy contrast. If the word “indulgent” didn’t exist, somebody would need to invent it to describe the Twin Tin Sandwich.

Also, the word “enormous.” The sandwich cost just $6 and easily fed two people. That’s my story, anyway. My partner, whom I had pressed (coerced?) to share, did not agree. “I imagine a whole one would be very satisfying,” he said huffily when I asked him for input.

Extremely important insider tip: If you do not see the ice cream sandwich listed on the menu board when you visit, be sure to ask for it. That’s happened to me twice, and both times the young folks behind the counter have met my anxious question, “So you are out of ice cream sandwiches, then?” with a kind and cheery refutal before disappearing for a moment and returning with one wrapped in a homey brown paper bag.

I looked up Ben & Jerry’s to jog my memory about that long-ago ice cream sandwich. Online anyway, it hasn’t left a trace. But I did learn that, in 2017, the company released the ‘Wich, in which chocolate chip cookies sandwich ice cream. I also read that it now manufactures pints of Ice Cream Sammie, a flavor in which chunks of chocolate sandwich cookies and chocolate cookie swirls dot vanilla ice cream.

Sorry, Ben. Sorry, Jerry. While I was pining, the Twin Tin Sandwich snuck in and stole my heart.

Twin Tin Sandwich, $6, Twin Swirls, 865 Brighton Ave., Portland. Find them on Facebook.