Belinda C.
Yelp
Ever since I experienced Salt & Straw, R St, Ice Blocks Midtown Sacramento location, my standards for ice cream and dessert have risen dramatically. Nowadays, I often end up not buying ice cream or dessert after wandering through the freezer aisles and bakery because I want something special or unique. When the rare occasion to traverse to downtown Sac popped up, I would visit Salt & Straw to pick a fun gourmet ice cream flavor, not blinking or thinking twice to grab a $13 pint of ice cream!
I am ecstatic that Salt & Straw has opened a new location so close to me! The Ice Blocks location is super popular and busy, so I cannot sample to my heart's delight without holding up the line. However, tonight at this new Roseville "The Fountains" location, I got to taste everything I was curious about!
The most popular classic flavors are listed in order from top to bottom in the left column, so try those first if you are unsure where to start.
Honey Lavender, Coffee & Love Nuts, Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons, and Chocolate Gooey Brownie are all amazing. I would buy pints of the first two I listed.
Tonight's cashier's top 2 favorites are Honey Lavender and Chocolate Gooey Brownie.
Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip (a vegan flavor made with coconut milk) is listed as one of the Top 5 Best Sellers on Salt & Straw's website:
https://saltandstraw.com/products/best-sellers-pint-pack
I thought it tasted good. Creamy, smooth, and delicately minty and chocolatey.
The employee giving me samples told me his favorite was Peanut Butter Brittle Caramel Fudge, which is also vegan. It was delicious, especially if you like toffee or Heath Bar ice cream.
I think I was in a candy mood today, so I ended up choosing the limited time Halloween or October 2023 special, the Great Candycopia, with its mixture of crushed chocolate candy bars, and Coffee & Love Nuts. I love and am nuts about the texture and crunch of the Love Nuts, which remind me of Whoppers malted milk chocolate balls.
I bought one single scoop and got one free with the Grand Opening promo by signing up to be on their mailing list in advance. Hurray for freebies! Thank you, Salt & Straw.
In the past, I remember enjoying my taste of Pear & Blue Cheese enough to order it, so I recommend sampling it, but I found it overwhelming as a scoop.
The employee giving me samples tonight was super friendly, happy to serve, and helpful. He was very diligent about warning about possible ice cream ingredients that could cause allergies or raise alarm (i.e., almonds, coconut milk, meat in the Thanksgiving Turkey Stuffing & Cranberry Sauce ice cream!). He even kindly offered to just go down the left column of Classic Flavors after I had already tried the 2 remaining Halloween October flavors and all 5 of the Thanksgiving November flavors! FYI: Salt & Straw changes and offers different Limited Edition flavors every month.
The best Thanksgiving flavors are the Parker House Rolls with Salted Buttercream and Mom's Mango Pie, but I didn't like any of the Thanksgiving flavors enough to order them. Cranberry Sauce ice cream looked appetizing with its red swirls in creamy white ice cream, but turkey stuffing just tastes so wrong to me. I don't like stuffing in general. The Pumpkin & Gingersnap Pie is another vegan flavor, but the flavor was too strong for me. I also didn't like eating pie crust in my ice cream.
I was excited to see sample testers of the poetically named Culinary Perfumes. You can order a Culinary Perfume Spritz for $0.50 with your ice cream. Only the top surface of your ice cream would get sprayed. This is the order I enjoyed them from most to least:
1. A Plume of Blooms (jasmine, honeysuckle, wild country garden)
2. A Swoon of Citrus (key lime pie, lychee, Italian lemon grove)
3. A Cloud of Cocoa (Ecuadorian chocolate, malted milkshake, Japanese whiskey - Whiskey was too strong and obvious to me.)
Pro Tips I learned from the Sac location:
1. For $0.50 extra, you can do a Split Scoop, so you can try 2 flavors without ordering a double scoop. I believe you would get 2 Kids Scoops, instead of a one flavor Single Scoop.
2. A Double is only $2 more than a Single Scoop, so that's the best value unless you can commit to a pint.
3. If you know your favorite flavor, you can grab a pint from the freezer, skip the line, and head directly to the cash register to pay.
4. A Flight is your choice of 4 ice cream flavors for $16.
Hmm, I wonder if you do 2 Split Scoops of a Double instead for $8.50 + 2 x $0.50 = $9.50.
Can you tell I'm on a sugar high?!@#% I can't believe I rushed to write and finish this loooonnnng review.
Salt & Straw chose its name because the ice cream is handmade in small batches, like in the olden days: Rock Salt was used to freeze the ice cream, which was then packed in Straw to keep it cold.
Thank you very much for coming to Roseville, Salt & Straw! My dessert search is over.