Farm to Pint: How This New Hampshire Ice Cream Shop Is Redefining Local Flavor

Kristina Zontini didn’t plan on opening an ice cream shop. What started as a creative outlet from her day job—churning “super secret” pints for family and friends—quickly became something more. First, an underground Instagram account. Then, farmers’ markets. And finally, a full-blown scoop shop tucked in the White Mountains of Bethlehem, New Hampshire.

Today, Super Secret Ice Cream has become a beloved destination, known not only for its small-batch pints made with ultra-local ingredients but also for its no-compromise approach to flavor. Kristina’s commitment to supporting regional farms and community producers isn’t just a feel-good side note—it’s the entire business model.

“It just made sense,” Kristina said. “You need a place to gather in a small town, and there was a real need for it.”

Before opening the shop, Kristina operated out of a shed using a deep freezer and two countertop compressor machines. “It was a little bootleggy,” she laughed. But the demand never slowed. And when a space opened on Main Street, she knew it was time.

Why Local Ingredients Matter

Since day one, Kristina’s ethos has remained simple: don’t cut corners. Every pint is made with top-quality, often hyperlocal ingredients—eggs, cream, and milk from nearby farms, honey from a neighbor down the road, and maple sugar sourced from Mount Cabot. Their flavor lineup rotates often, but one thing never changes: everything is made in-house. That includes the honeycomb folded into their best-selling honeycomb ice cream and the crème fraîche base that forms their ever-evolving vanilla.

Even a classic chocolate scoop gets the VIP treatment, made with single-origin chocolate bars rather than cocoa powder. “Not all chocolate tastes the same,” she reminded me. “That’s why we’re constantly changing ours up and experimenting with it.”

Breaking the Mold with Flavor

While flavors like salted caramel and cookies and cream have their place, Kristina’s menu tends to spotlight the unexpected. Take their tangy, creamy Ba Ba Blackberry made with sheep’s milk yogurt, or their herbaceous Blueberry Basil—one of the shop’s biggest hits last summer.

Her approach mirrors a broader trend in the ice cream world: the rise of bold, unconventional flavor pairings. Chains like Jeni’s and Salt & Straw have popularized scoops like pink peppercorn pineapple, black olive brittle with goat cheese, wildberry lavender, or even pastrami (yes, really). And while these menus often live in bigger cities, Kristina proves that flavor experimentation isn't reserved for urban audiences.

“I think there’s this idea like, ‘Oh, you’re in a rural area—people aren’t going to like x, y, z.’ But that just wasn’t true,” she said. “People love trying something new, even if they only try it once.”

Super Secret’s rotating menu also reflects the availability of local produce. If someone nearby has a crop of rhubarb, they’ll take that and build a flavor around it.

“It’s about taste, yes—but more than that, it’s about supporting our food system here,” she explained.

Want to Make Better Ice Cream at Home? Here’s Kristina’s Advice

Whether you’re dreaming up your own honeycomb swirls or just want to make a killer vanilla bean, Kristina has a few tried-and-true tips for home ice cream makers:

1. Start With a Good Cookbook

Kristina recommends Hello, My Name Is Ice Cream by Dana Cree and Ice Cream According to Osterberg by Catherine Osterberg. “That’s what started my own journey,” she said. 

2. Get a Compressor Model Machine

If you’re serious, skip the models that require you to pre-freeze the bowl. “I started on the [Whynter 2.1 Qt. with Built-In Compressor] and it was a total workhorse and affordable,” Kristina said. “I ran my entire business on two of those for the first year.” Brands like Breville also make great ones.

3. Think Beyond Heavy Cream

Kristina loves swapping traditional dairy for crème fraîche or sheep’s milk yogurt. These add a tangy, cultured flavor that works especially well with fruit or herbs.

4. Use Maple Sugar Instead of Syrup

For a bold maple flavor without compromising texture, Kristina recommends using maple sugar (not syrup) in your base. “Syrup adds too much liquid, which can mess with the structure and mouthfeel,” she explained.

5. Real Ingredients, Always

Avoid flavored syrups, powders, and extract shortcuts if you can. For example, steep real mint leaves into your base instead of reaching for a mint syrup. “Your run-of-the-mill vanilla extract isn’t going to taste as good as scraping a real vanilla bean,” she said.

6. Let the Season (and Your Farmers) Guide You

Build your flavors around what’s freshest. “If a recipe calls for peaches, but plums or nectarines are beautiful, use those.” And think about fresh adding herbs—basil, lavender, thyme. Or spices from her favorite store, Burlap & Barrel

At the end of the day, Kristina isn’t chasing national distribution or looking to even move the shop. “I want to support our local dairy farms. I want to buy honey from the woman down the street,” she said. For now, you can find them in the mountains, probably plotting their next batch of flavors.