People love a delicious sweet treat. Whether it is salty or sweet, chocolate or strawberry, healthy or complete with diabetes, they are universally loved.
Fortunately, Starkville, Mississippi, has plenty of opportunities for sweet treats for $7 and below. These local businesses range from ice-cream shops to restaurants, but each has at least one dessert that can hit the spot.
MAFES Sales Store
The MAFES Sales Store on campus has one huge option for a sweet treat, and it might just be the cheapest. Mississippi State University has a renowned dairy program, and with that comes sweet, creamy ice cream that comes in 4-ounce cups, selling at $2. Students have some opinions on which Mississippi State ice cream flavor people should try next.
Catherine Bryson, a sophomore kinesiology major who works at the MAFES store, recommended the muscadine ripple ice cream.
“Muscadine Ripple is my favorite,” Bryson said. “It is made with muscadine jam and vanilla extract.”
Combining the sweet yet tart jam with smooth vanilla ice cream makes the ice cream special and pretty with its pink swirls. Bryson called the ice cream a staple in Starkville and explained that the flavor frequently sells out at the store.
Libby Logan, a freshman animal and dairy science major, also works at the MAFES store, and she recommended the chocolate almond ice cream for a nutty, rich combination.
In the store, a total of 7 flavors of ice cream are offered. These flavors include vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, muscadine ripple, cookies and cream, butter pecan and chocolate almond. Logan also mentioned the chocolate milk, which is $1.25, saying that this delicacy is a very popular must-have.
“It sells out super fast. We can barely keep it in the store,” Logan said.
Power of the Almond Bakery
For another sweet treat, visit Power of the Almond Bakery, located at 608 MS-12 East in Starkville. This bakery is a bit of a hole-in-the-wall, tucked between a nail salon and a smoke shop. Although the bakery has the smallest storefront on its strip, it serves a huge purpose. The bakery is completely sugar and gluten-free, and it is also keto-friendly. For those looking to find a sweet treat that checks all the boxes of “healthy,” Power of the Almond Bakery makes it pretty easy to find something. Almost everything in the bakery is below $7.
One of the staples at Power of the Almond Bakery is their pound cake loaves. The loaves come in multiple flavors, including lemon blueberry, cookie butter, caramel coffee, classic lemon and banana nut. The miniature lemon blueberry loaf is moist and only $5.95, with just enough lemon flavor to make the cake balanced. It was not overpowering or too sour, and the blueberry makes the perfect combination.
Dolce
For those still craving something cold instead of warm pound cake, Dolce, an artisan gelato shop located at 509 University Drive, has many different options for a sweet treat, but the staff recommended the gelato above all else. There are multiple flavors that are always rotating.
The flavor that stood out on my visit was the peanut butter chocolate chip, which the staff also recommended. This gelato is a delicious mix of peanut butter and chocolate. Neither flavor overpowered the other, and the gelato also has chocolate chips mixed in, giving it just a little bit of crunch that pairs well with the smoothness of the gelato. Not only is one scoop of gelato only $5, but on Tuesdays, students get 10% percent off at Dolce.
Garden Babies Salad Station
Garden Babies Salad Station is a locally owned restaurant, located at 325 University Drive. Vee Scott owns and runs the salad station with her daughter, and they have two types of dessert on their menu: “Ms. Mary’s” cakes and pies. Ms. Mary is Scott’s mother.
When asked what their best sweet treat is, Scott gave a recommendation.
“The caramel cake is delicious. It is an old-fashioned, hand-made cake,” Scott said.
Scott also said, “The caramel will melt in your mouth. I promise.”
One slice of cake is only $4, but the caramel is not their only flavor. They also have chocolate, red velvet, pound cake and lemon pound cake.
Churn and Spoon
Churn and Spoon is an ice cream parlor located at 605 MS-12 in the same building as the coffee shop Strange Brew. The ice cream at Churn and Spoon is locally made and hand-dipped. There are multiple flavors, ranging from your basic vanilla to ice cream specifically made for different holidays.
Their Mardi Gras King Cake ice cream, for example, is divine and tastes just like a King Cake. It has chunks of cake, icing and a praline base. One could go as far as to say it is better than the Blue Bell version. The parlor also has ice cream cakes, milkshakes and a plethora of toppings for those who want to customize their ice cream sundaes. Two scoops of the Mardi Gras ice cream in a waffle cone is $6.
The State Fountain Bakery
The State Fountain Bakery on campus has multiple sweet treats that can hit the spot. Most of the products are $6 and under. The staff recommends the rockslide brownies, donut holes, chocolate chip cookies, apple fritters and the donut twists. The bakery is always busy, so it is first come, first serve. But students can drop by and get some gooey goodies, and they can use dawg dollars to pay for the treats.
While Sonic and Cookout are also always great places to stop for a cheap, sweet snack, local businesses throughout Starkville offer plenty of affordable sweet treats for students and community members to savor.
