Written in the stars: The legendary tale of Maritime ice cream favourite Moon Mist

The Moon Mist flavour has become a staple in Atlantic Canada since it began popping up in ice cream parlours in the 1970s. One N.S. family says their grandfather was behind it all.

The lore in the Hart household was as rich as the ice cream served every day.

After joining his family’s creamery business, the story goes, Bruce Hart travelled from Nova Scotia to the U.S. to attend ‘Ice Cream University.’

The dates and places are foggy — as often happens with family history passed down through generations — but it was sometime before or after he served during the Second World War and likely took place at what’s now the University of Massachusetts, a school with strong roots in agriculture and food science.

It was there, legend has it, that a young Bruce Hart had the audacity to swirl three ice cream flavours together: banana, grape and blue raspberry.

He called it Moon Mist, a lush ice cream flavour with colourful ripples of yellow, purple and blue.

“My grandfather told us he got to experiment with flavour mixtures, and that’s how those improbable flavours came together that some people love and some may find disgusting,” said Peter O’Brien, grandson of the late Bruce Hart.

“It was always part of family lore that my grandfather invented Moon Mist.”

By the mid 1970s, the specialty flavour was catching on. The exact flavour combination of Moon Mist shifted over the years, with a popular local dairy swapping out blue raspberry for blue bubble gum in its recipe.