Update Review, 2023-2026
Over the past few years, I've had a chance to try a few more unique flavors from Salt & Straw when I ordered pints for delivery, and a few more standard crowd pleasing flavors while flying on Alaska Airlines flights. I remain relatively impressed. It isn't ice cream I'll go out of my way for, but I certainly enjoyed it.
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| Thanksgiving Series. |
Oh be still my heart! I finally took the plunge and ordered a couple pints from Salt & Straw's always interesting Thanksgiving lineup. I'm so glad I did.
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| Parker House Rolls w/ Salted Buttercream. |
"What's a holiday feast without warm, fluffy rolls? We carb-load by gently folding buttered rolls topped with flaky sea salt into a salted butter ice cream to double down on the savory, making this simple side the most coveted. It’s rich, it’s decadent, and it’s as classic as it gets."
"Everyone loves a bread basket, and ours is brimming with warm, fluffy buttered rolls. Slightly sweet, lightly toasted, and finished with a sprinkle of flaky sea salt, these melt-in-your-mouth dinner rolls are gently folded into a rich, sweet-and-salty butter ice cream. Simple yet irresistible, this classic starter gets everyone excited for what’s to come."
Ok, this flavor I was seriously excited for. I do love a good Parker House roll (which, I have actually had at *the* Parker House, in Boston, at a wedding), and I love buttercream, and, um, who doesn't love butter, so this sounded fascinating and awesome all at once. I couldn't wait to dive in.
I was disappointed when I read the ingredients though and saw that they use King's Hawaiian Rolls. Now, don't get me wrong, I like King's Hawaiian Rolls, but, they are not the same thing as Parker House rolls, and, Salt & Straw usually prides themselves in making all the individual components of their ice cream (e.g. even the Halloween candy ones have homemade versions of Kit Kats, etc). I decided to trust them that these worked better than anything they could do in-house, as they clearly aren't ones for being lazy with custom ingredients. But it is worth noting that these aren't really Parker House Rolls.
I was a bit disappointed when I lifted the lid as well. This wasn't a pint with good "curb appeal", if you know what I mean. No inclusions visible, no swirl of magic sauce to draw you in, no hunks of cookie dough or rubble beckoning you to dig for them. It looked ... like plain ice cream.
But one taste, and I was hooked. I will admit that one bite in, I decided that 1) I needed to pop it in the microwave for a few seconds as I couldn't possibly wait for it to soften to perfect eating consistency, and 2) I absolutely was not bothering with getting a bowl to scoop it into. No, this was a dangerous kind of pint, the kind you just absolutely cannot put down, and are glad to have all to yourself in the secrecy of your own home. One taste, and I needed to devour the entire thing, stat.
Because it was everything I wanted it to be and then some. The base ice cream was sweet and salty. Yes, it was ... butter ice cream base. Rich, salty, decadent, and unique. Perhaps just a touch too sweet, but, that is a minor downside. It melted really nicely. High quality, premium, *butter*, ice cream. A+.
Move on to the inclusions, which were there, once I got under the top surface. So yes, minor ding for the fact that I did have to get a full and complete spoonful in order to get mix-ins, but, very minor point, given that they were well distributed throughout otherwise, and, well, were fantastic.
Hunks of toasted King's Hawaiian rolls. Yes, it is strange. Yes, I worried they'd be soggy. But they weren't. The toasting must really help. They were sweet, they were doughy, I wanted to keep digging for these pieces. Speaking of strange, yes, then there are the hunks of buttercream. They were about the same size as the hunks of bread. They were sweet, buttery, salty. They didn't melt in the same as the ice cream, so you could tell what was bits of buttercream, and what was ice cream.
Put it all together and you have a premium base, unique flavors (for ice cream that is, the brain has no problem with understanding the taste of Hawaiian rolls or buttercream after all), fun textures, and hunks integrated throughout that you want to just keep digging and digging for. And thus, yes, you have me, pint and spoon in hand, standing in the middle of the kitchen, riveted, and not capable of putting it down until an embarrassingly large portion of the pint was suddenly "missing". I call that success, although, ooph, I had a bit of stomach ache right after.
4.5/5, highly recommend.
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| Roasted Peach & Sage Cornbread Stuffing. |
"In this classic twist on stuffing, we ditch bread cubes for molasses-y, crumbly cornbread cookies and bring that classic herbiness by steeping sweet cream with fresh sage. Dollops of tart peach jam simmered with warm spices and honey balsamic vinegar brighten it all up for a balanced, woodsy ice cream."
For my second pint, I considered several of the other Thanksgiving option, but the one that I finally decided on was the Roasted Peach & Sage Cornbread Stuffing. I adore stuffing, so although the roasted peach didn't seem that interesting (nor really that Thanksgiving inspired?), I hoped the stuffing would be compelling (of course, it is cornbread cookies, not actual bread hunks, in this one). And yes, they do make their own jam, and cornbread cookies, for this. The balsamic sounded fascinating too.
It was indeed a fascinating flavor. Not necessarily delicious, but, fascinating.
The swirls of peach jam were generous, and intensely flavorful. The peach jam was very, very sweet, but also incredibly spiced, and acidic. Sweet and tart and spiced, all at once. Huge punches of flavor. I didn't quite care for the flavor, but I give them credit for the intensity, and the huge gobs of it.
Then there were the gritty bits of cornbread cookie, that was supposed to remind me of stuffing. I didn't really find hunks of cookie as I hoped, just this touch of grittiness throughout. I liked the texture actually, but I wanted to actually taste the cornbread element more, and wanted bigger hunks to contrast against the so very sweet jam.
I did love the sage that really came through on the finish. Just as they say, very woodsy, but in an extremely pleasant way.
I found the journey of eating this unexpected, and it was certainly a unique flavor, but I never found myself wanting to go back an extra scoop of this. The jam was just too much. I'll give it a generous 3/5 for creativity and the sage, but otherwise, a letdown flavor for me.
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| Sea Salt w/ Caramel Ribbons. |
"Our reimagination of the classic. We spike our cream with just enough Guatemalan fleur de sel to bring out its nuances, then drizzle in ribbons of our hand-burned caramel."
The first time I flew with Alaska Airlines, the flavor was Salt & Straw's most famous, sea salt with caramel ribbons, which I've had before, and loved.
It was served quite solid, so it took a while to become possible to eat it. But once it softened, I dug right in. It matched my memory of the flavor - nice quality base ice cream, and TONS of very gooey, very sweet, caramel. I added my own fresh strawberries and sprinkles, and quite enjoyed. And then I enjoyed an extra, which I volunteered to take off the flight attendants hands (so generous of me, right?). She happily obliged, given how many extra there were. 4/5.
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Strawberry Rhubarb w/ Cinnamon Crumble.
(Alaska Airlines).
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On my next flight, I was quite happy to see that we had the strawberry rhubarb with cinnamon crumble flavor. I don't think this is sold directly by Salt & Straw to consumers, I think it is a special collaboration with Alaska. The ice cream featured swirls of strawberry rhubarb jam and cinnamon snickerdoodle cookie pieces.
It was served quite hard, but it did melt nicely eventually. It was fabulous ice cream, smooth, rich, creamy, and the fruity swirls of jam were quite flavorful. I liked the texture from the softened snickerdoodle bits. It was a flavor I could enjoy on its own without adding too much to it (although, of course, I did add some fresh strawberries too).
4/5.
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Pumpkin Spiced Latte Cake.
(Alaska Airlines). |
My next Alaska flight was on Sept 1, and it just changed out to ... pumpkin spice latte cake. Doh. I'm sure this excited some folks, but August had pistachio with ricotta ripple that people raved about and sounded great to me, and I'm not really one for pumpkin spice. But, still, I do like Salt & Straw, so of course I tried it. This is a flavor made only for the airline I believe.
And ... yeah. It was aggressively pumpkin spiced, which I think is probably great if you like those spices, no doubt, but for me it was waaaay too much nutmeg and things I don't generally like. I didn't taste anything latte about it either, no coffee flavor at all (which was fine, but an odd name for a flavor if it's really just pumpkin spice cake ...). The cake element was ... interesting. It seemed like pulverized tiny bits of cake that basically just made it slightly soggy and sorta like sawdust? But the flavor really was true to name in the cake part, you couldn't miss this texture.
It was served at a decent temperature, it still required a bit of time to soften nicely, but wasn't a total rock. No freezer burn. Good quality ice cream base. But just not a flavor for me. 2/5 for the flavor, 3.5/5 for the quality.
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Peppermint Cookies & Cream.
(Alaska Airlines). |
Winter brought peppermint. It was ... ok. Mine wasn't properly sealed, and it was a bit freezer burnt. I wanted more peppermint flavor. I feel like a broken record here, but, I don't really like cookies & cream in general (really, I don't care for Oreos), so I wished it was something more like mint chip, but I think this is likely a crowd pleaser.
Original Review, 2022
In 2017, something exciting happened in San Francisco. A new
ice cream shop came to town. Not that San Francisco has a shortage of great ice cream, ranging from the
always busy Bi-Rite, to
daring flavors at Humphrey Slocombe, to
liquid nitrogen darling Smitten Ice Cream, to my personal favs
Mitchell's,
Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous, and the now shuttered
Shakedown ... Yes, San Francisco has plenty of great ice cream. But a new place was coming, and, wow, it was surrounded by hype.
Salt & Straw was coming to town. Those who had discovered it in other cities along the West Coast (mostly, Portland) raved about it. I remember when I was in the LA area once a year or so before someone telling me I *had* to go there. I remembered it due to the sorta odd name (which, isn't really odd, it turns out, it refers to the basics of old school ice cream making, where you use rock salt to lower the freezing point of water, and store ice cream in insulating straw). Salt & Straw was known for their very interesting flavors.
"We’re inspired by interesting ingredients. A local creamery’s habanero-laced goat cheese. Herbaceous and citrusy liqueur from a craft distillery. Wild nettles foraged in Washington. Our Grandma Malek’s famous almond brittle. Every ingredient has a story; we’re trying to find the most intriguing angle."
Salt & Straw really means it when they say they are inspired by interesting ingredients. The flavor line up at Salt & Straw is constantly changing, with new flavors monthly. Yes, they have some classics that remain in all scoop shops, but otherwise, they are constantly trying out crazy combinations, some exclusive to particular locations. The flavors always sound bold, unique, and, well, not things you'd normally think of putting into ice cream, like Duck Cracking with Cherry Preserves. Ras el Hanout & Pickled Rose Petal Jam. Roasted Beets & Humboldt Fog. Some, I'm sure, are more successful than others. Their tame, everyday flavors include Arbequina Olive Oil and Pear & Blue Cheese.
All the ice cream made by Salt & Straw is super premium, meaning, made with as high percent butterfat as they can get into it (using cream from Scott Brothers Dairy). Of course they make all their own candies, caramels, etc that go into the pints, unless of course they are part of one of their many collaboration projects with local artisan bakeshops and the like. The price is higher than many other brands, but, the quality and exclusiveness commands it.
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| Fillmore Storefront. |
The first location in SF was on Fillmore Street, right in a prime shopping and strolling area. And, yup, they were quite successful, now with multiple SF locations, including another in Hayes Valley.
If you don't want to visit a shop though, they deliver all over the city on every major food delivery platform, and ship nationwide.
Side note: Want some ice cream delivered? For free? Here are some codes for free money!
- Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
- Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
- Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
- Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]
My first visit was to the Fillmore St location, but I've since ordered pints for delivery.
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| Pints. |
Because the flavors change every few weeks, Salt & Straw doesn't develop specific labels for any pints, rather, all pints come hand labelled, regardless if you get them at a shop, at a grocery store, or shipped nationwide. The labels add a small batch, limited, exclusive feel to the ice cream.
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| Logo. |
Each pint has the Salt & Straw logo on top, proudly proclaiming their Portland heritage.
Regular Flavors
Each Salt & Straw location has about a dozen standard flavors, always including 1-2 vegan options, and their signature flavors. These are generally consistent across locations, but there are a few variations.
I've tried several from this lineup, and, wow, I see why they are fixtures on the menu.
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| Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons. |
"Our signature flavor combines Guatemalan Fleur de Sel ice cream with ribbons of housemade, hand-burned caramel for a positively obsession-worthy blend of salty and sweet. We created this ice cream with Mark Bitterman, the ‘selmelier’ behind The Meadow, a family of world renowned salt shops in Portland and New York. He literally wrote the book on the subject—James Beard Award-winning cookbook Salted—and has aided many of our saltier ice cream experiments since 2011."Oh, wow.
I saw "sea salt" and "caramel" in the name, and thought, "yup, another trendy salted caramel product". I'm glad I didn't pay much attention to the full description, because the result is that I went in expecting simple vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl that I'd inevitably review as "I didn't really detect the promised salt", like, well, most salted caramel products.
But not this. Um, no. This was, indeed, as named, "Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons". The base ice cream is not vanilla. It is salt. Yes, salt ice cream. It is a beautiful flavor, really quite unlike anything I've had before (including the
salt ice cream from Alden & Harlow that wasn't remarkable). Smooth, creamy, premium ice cream, amazing salt flavor.
And then there are the caramel ribbons. Now, these ... these are just too sweet for me. But the consistency is perfect, gooey in just the right way. A little of the caramel was wonderful with the salt flavored base, but, the distribution was just a bit too high for me, resulting in a very salty product.
Still, wow, what a flavor.
****.
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| Chocolate Gooey Brownie. |
"This one hits the spot when those extra-urgent chocolate desires kick in. An indulgent, almost hot-chocolatey chocolate ice cream lays the foundation for hearty chunks of chewy chocolate brownies made with homemade marshmallow fluff to keep them extra soft—even when frozen in ice cream. It’s the ultimate comfort food."Next I went chocolately, opting for the very tempting sounding chocolate gooey brownie.
This was the least interesting of the ice creams I tried (even once I dug away from the freezer burn on top, doh!).
The chocolate base wasn't really indulgent at all, it was just mild milk chocolate, not nearly as intense as I wanted. The brownies were well distributed throughout, good size chunks, and I did appreciate that they were soft and not icy, but there wasn't anything particularly special about them.
I just found this flavor boring and disappointing, and tried it several times, thinking I just wasn't in "the mood" originally, but, it never really delivered on what I was looking for.
***.
Collaborations
Salt & Straw is constantly doing collaborations with other merchants. Sometimes they'll choose a bakery, and do flavors inspired by the signature cakes, and of course have chunks of cake from the inspiration bakery in them. Other times it is a particular chef, and they team up to create unique flavors. In the summer, it might be a farmer they pair with to create vegetable forward flavors. Every month, a new theme or partnership, and more exciting flavors to explore (I'm still sad I missed out on the Mushroom Muddy Buddies made with a mix of different wild mushrooms!).
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| The Cookie Monster. |
“Cookie and cream with 9 dips of cholttate and 6 dips of lavendr all over with cholttate eyes with whiped cream hair.” -by Corion from Ms. Coombs Class, Dr. William L Cobb Elementary
This flavor was done as part of a collaboration with local schools to design flavors, and the winners had their flavors actually made into ice cream. This one was dubbed "The Cookie Monster"
The translation into a flavor by Salt & Straw was a blue colored ice cream (vanilla), with chunks of fudge and Oreo cookies. This photo really didn't come out well, as it was fairly brilliant blue.
I'm not sure if it was my mind playing tricks on me, but I really, really thought the ice cream was frosting flavored. It was super creamy, and tasted exactly like the blue frosting on a Carvel cake. Hence, my concern that it was just my brain playing tricks on me. It tasted ... blue! Sweet and blue, and really quite enjoyable. That couldn't be just vanilla ... could it?
I'm never one for Oreo or cookies and cream inspired things, as I generally don't care for the texture, but this didn't bother me too much. I liked the fudge chunks more, and thought the chocolate was a nice compliment to the sweeter ice cream. The chocolate here was more successful than in the brownies in the Chocolate Gooey Brownie pint. Clearly quality chocolate.
Overall, I really did like this, and would happily have more. Thank you, to this random elementary school kid for the inspiration.
****.
The Spooktacular Series: October 2018.
In October, the flavors all tend to take on a Halloween slant. There is one with real bugs, one with blood pudding, and one loaded with candy. You know, all your typical Halloween features. But I was drawn in by the "Essence of Ghost", even though the description didn't tell me anything about what it actually was.
Essence of Ghost (October Special):
"Do the wisps of ghouls spooking a foggy graveyard give you the chills? This frigid sherbet might just bring you back to that memorable moment of shivering pleasure. Jets of tasty gray pass through the deep foggy sherbet. Each bite of this sherbet delivers a shrill set of flavors that are bitter, sweet, and slightly smoky. This one is so creepy and delicious, it’ll give you chills.".
When I ordered it, I was warned, "it has scotch, that's ok, right?" I was suddenly even *more* interested. Of course that was ok!
The look of this ice cream was not exactly appealing, a shade of gray, not the color food normally is. But the taste? Wonderful. All the smoky qualities of scotch, in an ice cream. It was fairly savory, only a little sweet. I loved the smokiness.
A unique flavor, and I really enjoyed it, but wished for some texture from chunks of ... something. I'm still not sure what would pair well with it, but I wanted bits of something inside.
****.
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| Pots of Gold & Rainbows. |
"For this legendary technicolor favorite, we hand-sort the luck from the charms, steeping the whole-grain cereal in cream for that bottom-of-the-bowl sweetened milk before stirring in mountains of rainbow ‘mallows."
I don't remember what the theme or collaboration was the month that brought about Pots of Gold & rainbows.
This isn't a flavor I'd ever go out of my way to purchase a pint of. It sounded like a "cereal milk" base, with, well, Lucky Charms. I ... don't really like Lucky Charms. This flavor is all about, well, Lucky Charms. They even make it with real Lucky Charms cereal. And yes, they do just use the now standard cereal milk technique to steep the milk in the cereal base (made famous by the original from Milk Bar in New York, which of course
I've reviewed before).
That said, I do like cereal milk ice cream (sometimes, but not
Ben & Jerry's Frozen Flakes™ version, and not the
Frokzen Kuhsterd Cinnamon Toast Crunch), and so when a friend offered a pint in exchange for some protein mug muffins (she ordered a case of this online, I had a case of the muffins and they were far too healthy for me), it seemed like a winning trade. So I gave it a try.
My first impression? Like all of the other Salt & Straw ice cream I had before, it is clearly super premium high quality ice cream. And, yes, wow, it tasted exactly like Lucky Charms! Which, I mean, it should, but wow! The flavor was remarkable in that way.
And if you know Lucky Charms, then you know this means it is very sweet, marshmallowy, and slightly fruity. Lucky Charms aren't my favorite thing, but this turned out to be a pretty fun, tasty,evolution of the "cereal milk" ice cream fad. I enjoyed trying it, and certainly polished off the pint with no issue, but, I wouldn't get the flavor again.
***+.
Mt Tam Cheese with Toasted Acme Bread
"Cowgirl Creamery makes some of the best artisan cheese in America, inspiring the perfect cheese plate in ice cream form to show it off. We blend their Mt Tam cheese—rind and all— into the base of this flavor to capture both the funky notes and creamier-than-creamy richness of this perfect cheese. We then swirl in homemade sour cherry and apricot jam and bits of famed Ferry Building bakery Acme Bread’s Fruit and Walnut Bread that we toast and candy so they stay crunchy in every scoop!"
When Salt & Straw partnered with two San Francisco Ferry Building staples, Acme Bread and Cowgirl Creamery, I was all in. I knew both the base products very, very well, so this one sounded far to fascinating not to try.
Cowgirl Creamery's Mt. Tam is one of my favorite cheeses (my first real introduction to the fact that triple creams were, in fact, not *all* just called brie, lol). Acme Bread was a foundation of my life when I first moved to San Francisco. And yup, I love sour cherry jam. Basically, I love all the things in this flavor, but, uh, normally they come on a cheese plate, not an ice cream cone.
It was as strange and awesome as it sounded. A savory flavor, salty, funky in all the right ways from the Mt. Tam. I love that they included the rind in it. It was what I expected the
famed burrata ice cream from Dominque Ansel to taste like (but sadly, I didn't taste burrata in it at all!). The sweet jam was a perfect pairing, and although you didn't find distinct chunks of bread, it added a texture much like a graham cracker swirl.
This was fairly awesome, and really something different. For those times when you can't decide if you want a cheese platter or "real" dessert, turn to this!
****.
