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Rolled. Flash-frozen. Stuffed in an egg puff. Those ice cream trends are so last summer.
Just in time to beat the heat, a new wave of Bay Area ice cream and cold treat shops has again stolen our sweet tooth and baffled and delighted us with their innovation, from ice cream-filled doughnuts to dietitian-approved matcha soft serve stuffed into fish-shaped cones.
This latest list of extreme scoop shops has its roots in pure Bay Area ingenuity, from the lecture halls of Stanford University and the headquarters of Dropbox to the kitchens of stay-at-home moms with really yummy ideas.
Consider Lori Phillips, an immunologist with a Stanford PhD. Between labs, Phillips took a few business classes and in 2012, launched Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos, a re-imagined version of her childhood favorite, the Choco Taco, but made to order with local, organic ingredients.
In six years, Phillips has gone from food cart to truck to brick-and-mortar in Santa Clara. There, she makes her own ice cream, using Straus Family Creamery organic dairy, and stuffs it into tiny, housemade waffle tacos before dipping them into liquid chocolate.
Early on, Phillips figured out she could use liquid nitrogen to create that signature hard shell, the perfect canvas for a host of tasty crunchy toppings. Liquid nitrogen was used in the lab, she says, and “I immediately thought of it for tacos.”
Powder, San Francisco’s first Taiwanese shaved snow shop, was also inspired by a childhood treat. Mimi Hanley and David Chung didn’t know each other back when they were teenagers in Seattle, but they both made frequent trips with their friends to the Richmond District in Vancouver, Canada, where they visited the night market for Taiwanese shaved snow, a fluffy cold treat often described as ice cream meets shaved ice.
When they met at Dropbox in 2015, they bonded over this shared pastime and the Bay Area’s distinct lack of Taiwanese shaved snow — and Powder was born. “We call ourselves Taiwanese-inspired,” Hanley says, describing their two San Francisco shops. “We imported the concept but we bring a California spin to it.”
Translation: They develop their own recipes and make their blocks of ice using filtered water, Straus Creamery dairy and high-quality ingredients, such as strong Vietnamese coffee and housemade horchata. Every cup is shaved to order and sprinkled with gourmet toppings, like cocoa nibs and seasonal fruit.
And sometimes, the best treats are created at home, employing the sugar cravings of your five kids. That’s how Mike and Marion Valenzuela of San Francisco’s Milkbomb Ice Cream developed what is currently one of the most Instagrammed treats in California: ice cream-stuffed doughnuts covered in everything from Fruity Pebbles to mochi.
On any given day, the year-old Milkbomb offers six housemade doughnuts, up to 30 ice cream flavors and more sauces and toppings than you can imagine. Customers, iPhones at the ready, wait in line for up to 45 minutes to create their cold-treat destiny.
Whether you crave an ice cream-stuffed doughnut or a gourmet ice cream taco, here are five new ice cream shops where you can find innovative cold sweets this summer.
Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos
Inside Santa Clara’s former Mission City Creamery, Phillips and her crew churn out organic, artisanal versions of the Choco Taco ($5) as well as ice cream cake pops ($4). Everything is made in-house, from the ice cream to the mini waffle cone shells.
Choose from 12 flavors (everything from mint chip and lemon-blueberry to peanut butter-caramel) then watch as they smoosh it into a waffle shell, dip the top into your choice of coating (peanut butter or milk, dark or white chocolate) and zap it with liquid nitrogen, which hardens the dip into a shell. Top it with your favorite crunch, from pistachios to cocoa nibs and rainbow sprinkles.
Must-order: The waffle taco stuffed with Rocko’s Verve-based espresso ice cream, dipped in dark chocolate and covered in almonds. More of a cake-pop person? You’ll want the tiramisu with milk chocolate dip.
Details: Open from 2 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday at 2905 Park Ave., Santa Clara; www.rockosicecreamtacos.com
Milkbomb Ice Cream
This San Francisco scoop shop is the stuff of Instagram dreams. The Valenzuelas opened their Potretro Hill creamery last year and are already exploring a second location for their crazy-popular ice cream doughnut sandwiches ($5.70).
The ice cream flavors range from mint cookie and birthday cake to dairy-free mango and strawberry. The doughnuts — six varieties, including sugar, glazed and cinnamon crumble — tend to sell out. But you can also get a scoop ($3.70, or two scoops for $5.70) in unusual flavored cones, including activated charcoal, chocolate hazelnut, toasted coconut and lavender. Did we mention the ube sauce and rainbow mochi toppings? Soon to come: Torched marshmallow topping.
Must-order: The combinations are endless, but we’re fans of simple. Try birthday cake ice cream inside a red velvet crumble doughnut. Always a winner.
Details: Hours vary, but the shop is open Tuesday-Sunday at 1717 17th St., Suite 105, San Francisco; www.milkbombicecream.com
Powder
This tiny shop in San Francisco’s Lower Haight specializes in Taiwanese shaved snow. Hanley and Chung make their own Straus Creamery dairy-infused blocks of ice, which they run through a custom shaver to order. The super-sharp blade yields fine, featherlike layers of creamy ice that are light and airy — and clock in at no more than 200 calories per serving. There are eight flavors, including Vietnamese coffee, mango and the best-selling horchata, plus toppings like local honey, seasonal fruit and TCHO chocolate.
Must-order: Horchata with chocolate glaze. Or you can stop by Powder’s new location at Spark Social SF, the food truck park in Mission Bay, for passionfruit mojito and other boozy shaved snow.
Details: Open from noon Tuesday-Sunday at 260 Divisadero St., and from 11 a.m. daily at 601 Mission Bay Blvd. North, both in San Francisco; www.powdershavedsnow.com
Auntie Viv’s Shave Ice
Finally, gourmet Hawaiian ice in the Bay Area. Dublin mom and former City of El Cerrito recreation supervisor Vivian Brandt launched Auntie Viv’s last year after testing recipes at home with family and friends, and investing in a $2,000 Swan ice shaver.
Brandt makes her own tropical syrups using fresh (and organic, when possible) fruit, cane sugar and lemon juice. Just like traditional Hawaiian shave ice, you can add a scoop of vanilla or coconut ice cream to the bottom of your cup of fluffy, delicate shave ice ($6 to $8). The toppings, including mochi and azuki beans, are homemade, too. Soon to come: Organic green tea matcha syrup, coconut foam and farmers market fruit.
Must-order: We’re partial to guava and pineapple topped with mochi and li hing mui, a salty dried plum powder. It tastes like the islands.
Details: 4 to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Santana Row Farmer’s Market, San Jose. Also look for Auntie Viv’s at Pleasanton’s NorCal Night Market starting July 27. www.facebook.com/AuntieVivs.
Uji Time
At registered dietitian Sharon Ku’s ice cream shops, the Japanese-inspired soft-serve flavors are made from scratch using brewed matcha green tea and black sesame seeds that have been toasted in-house. Ku makes seasonal flavors at the peak of freshness, purple yam in the winter and sakura, or Japanese cherry blossom, in the spring.
But Uji Time’s piece-de-resistance is the fish-shaped taiyaki cone ($6-$8), crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside and only mildly sweet. “The ice cream is already sweet, so the cone recipe is modified,” Ku explains over the phone. “Our key message is portion control. Order one and share with a friend.” Just be sure to get your (Instagram) photo fast, she adds. “Soft serve melts pretty quickly.”
Must-order: If you’re a fan of matcha ice cream, Uji Time’s is the strongest and truest around. It has bits of green tea in it, which add nice texture to the smooth soft serve.
Details: Open daily at 2575 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley and at 22 Peace Plaza, Suite 440, San Francisco. Third shop coming soon to Pleasanton; https://ujitime.weebly.com
