I’ve hit my fair share of creemee stands. Vermont Cookie Love on Route 7 sees me regularly for a cappuccino creemee. At Goodies Snack Bar, I count the days until the multitiered maple creemee is back in rotation. Sama's Cafe is right around the corner from my house, so it's all too easy to appear at its walk-up window for a chocolate-vanilla twist.

But, as much as I love a creemee in a wafer cone, sometimes I want to savor a different summer symbol: the milkshake.

My favorite Vermont milkshake is churned to order at Middlebury Chocolates in Frog Hollow Alley. Spun with homemade ice cream and bean-to-bar chocolate, this not the frozen treat I indulged in as a child. That milkshake was called a “frappe," and in my case was blended with two scoops of Hood Golden Vanilla and a heavy hand of Hershey’s chocolate sauce.

And yet, Middlebury Chocolates' shake hits every note of sweet nostalgia even as it reflects the labor and quality that went into it: churning from-scratch ice cream with local milk and chocolate made from the bag of beans behind the store's counter.

This milkshake is thick and velvety, like the frappes I used to covet at White Mountain Creamery near Boston College, but with a texture so soft it almost seems aerated. The cream is cold without being icy; the chocolate is sweet but dark, lending a faint cocoa bitterness to a treat that is often too aggressive with the sugar.

The shake is finished with a good dollop of hand-whipped cream and shavings from a knob of chocolate grated over the top. The chocolate milkshake may be available year round, but this special-occasion indulgence is best enjoyed outside, in a sunny corner on the café’s veranda by the roaring Otter Creek Falls.