Scott F.
Yelp
I stopped by Petals Creamery in Los Gatos; This Persian-focused ice cream shop had a soft opening to the public May 4 only. I talked with the owner Nathan Gaudreau. The grand opening will likely be Saturday May 17, or Saturday May 24 at the latest. I sampled most of the flavors. Here are my rankings:
These are premium flavors: $9/scoop:
- 4.5/5: Saffron. Quite good. But saffron is a numbing flavor; the first few bites are great, but then your tongue adapts quickly, and it doesn't taste like much.
- 4.0/5: Orange blossom creamsicle. Nice spice blend to go with the orange. But the clotted cream chunks freeze too hard.
- 3.0/5: Pistachio mint stracciatella. It's really mint with a hint of pistachio.
- 3.5/5: Marcona milk: Uses house-made almond milk. It has a subtle lemon/citrus flavor.
These flavors are $7/scoop:
- 5.0/5: London Fog: Excellent. They add Lavender to complement the flavor.
- 4.0/5: Baklava. Too much cardamom flavor, but good otherwise.
- 3.0/5: Turkish Coffee: Too much cardamom flavor. The coffee flavor is not strong enough.
- 3.0/5: Cardamom chocolate: Too much cardamom flavor masks the chocolate.
- Vanilla (did not sample)
- Parisian Cookie monster with natural blue coloring (did not sample)
I tried one scoop of saffron ice cream ($9) in a baklava bowl ($7). The ice cream was great. But the baklava bowl just doesn't work. They are still experimenting and will likely tweak things.
They also have pastries, like a saffron creme brulee $9.
For ice cream geeks, here are the specs:
- The pastry chef Marcel Khorsand was trained in France, so the ice creams are heavy custard style: the formulation is high in fat, at 18% butterfat, and is loaded with egg yolks. People with egg allergy must be careful.
- They make everything from scratch, and do the full pasteurization pipeline in-house. It took them 2 years to get all the permits to become a full-on dairy processor.
- The ice creams are less sweet: It shows off the flavor better, which is nice. They use agave and honey for part of the sweetener, to have a somewhat lower glycemic index.
- They churn on-site using an Emery Thompson batch freezer.
- Similar to Eataly, all ice creams are stored in a pozetti cabinet, where each ice cream is under a silver lid; you can't see the ice creams, but they get better temperature control.