The Straight Split Scoop: Taste Buds do Ice Cream!

Betsy here. Let me begin by stating the facts: Ice cream is delicious. It's great!  It comes in tons of flavors, it's cold and creamy and refreshing, it's sweet, satisfying, and totally addicting.  It's ICE CREAM. It's automatically the best.  

So if you are a professional ice cream maker--if you make a living inventing delicious ice cream flavors and selling them to us, the grateful public--you are also automatically the best.  So before I get all critical here, let me just say - THANK YOU!!  You are making the world a tastier place.  To quote one of my favorite songs*, "Ice cream is going to save the day!"  And on many days, for me personally, it has!  Ice cream and ice cream makers are the best.  This is established.

But our job as the Taste Buds is to find out who the best-best is, and we begrudgingly sacrificed ourselves to find this out for all of you--residents of the Twin Cities.  So - in advance, you're welcome.

This time, we took the tasting to the streets! 

FIRST - CONTEXT

Our group was down a blonde member this time around - we missed you, Shalee!  Vanessa (our host) very kindly drove.  Our plan was to hit the five most famous, most respected house-made ice cream spots in the Twin Cities: Izzy's Ice Cream, the Grand Ole Creamery, Pumphouse Creamery, Crema Cafe (Sonny's) and Sebastian Joe's. There were definitely more places we wanted to visit (Edina Creamery, DQ :)) - but our time and appetites were limited, so we narrowed it down to the very best.

WHAT exactly we should taste to evaluate an ice cream makers' skill was a complex question--mostly because we all love ice cream so much and we really wanted our evaluation to be of the quality of the ice cream itself, knowing that there was no way we could evaluate all the flavors.  Here's what we decided:

1 - Pre-tasting evaluation--before we tasted, we evaluated the following:

**Price (for a single split scoop, or however we could try two flavors)

**Appearance/Presentation

**Location of Shop

**Ambiance of Shop

**Variety of Choices

**Quality of ingredients

After tasting, we evaluated:
**Initial taste
**Creaminess
**Uniqueness of taste
**Will we be back?
**Sweetness
**Firmness
**Cookie distribution (I'm getting to that...)

Ultimately, we decided to taste vanilla at each shop. I know!  Outcry! Uproar! But here's what we were thinking: vanilla is like the first step as an ice cream maker. It's square one.  It's the basis for so many other flavors!  If you can't make a good vanilla, I imagine it's pretty hard to make other flavors well. And, by tasting vanilla, we could evaluate the quality of the ice cream itself.

But we wanted to see how each ice cream maker handled their delicious flavors too - after all, how they distribute toppings in their flavors is definitely a big part of the ice cream experience.  So we picked a flavor most places would have - cookies and cream - and got a half-scoop of that, too, so we could get a sense of their approach to flavors in general. It totally worked out.

First stop: IZZY's in Saint Paul!

(Guys, this is serious)

Izzy's Ice Cream is located on Marshall and Cleveland in Saint Paul.  They got big points for presentation (beautiful scoop! great branding!), and we all agreed that the Izzy scoop is a brilliant, brilliant idea. For those of you who are unfamiliar, every time you get a scoop or two at Izzy's, you also get to choose a flavor for an izzy scoop - a little baby scoop on top!  It's awesome - it kind of feels like a little bonus, and you get to try a new flavor if you want.

The shop is totally focused on the ice cream. They have gazillions of flavors (both weird ones--like dark chocolate zinfandel and hot brown sugar--and old favorites). There's a drinking fountain and napkins everywhere and seating inside and out. We weren't crazy about the lineup layout (you have to awkwardly squeeze through and walk around the line to get in line to order) and the shop is a little off the beaten path, but the place was welcoming, smelled deliciously of waffle cones, and the staff was friendly. And they source all the ingredients they can locally, which we love!

Izzy's vanilla was solid. Creamy and not too sweet. There was some discussion in the group of it tasting a bit generic - like something you could get at the grocery store - and Vanessa got an ice chunk (oh no!), but overall, we were pleased. The Oreo izzy scoop had big chunks of cookie and plenty of them.  Amanda wasn't a superfan of the ice cream at this place, but she didn't hate it either - the ice cream just wasn't quite sweet enough or unique enough for her taste, but 3 of 4 of us said we would definitely be back with friends. 

Next, we were off to the Saint Paul-est of ice cream shops, the Grand Ole Creamery!

Grand Ole Creamery has got this ice cream thing DOWN. The line was huge-looking when we got there - but they worked it like a pro and we were sitting down with our treat in no time.  The place is totally 100% old-school ice cream shop favorite--wood floors, peppy staff, hand-written flavor signs.  Here's how walking in made us feel (Ameigh is especially loving it!):

The shop is located right on Grand Ave in Saint Paul (everyone knows where it is!) and is a frequent day and late-night treat spot. They've got lots of flavors--all the old favorites--but none that we noticed were too weird/creative. Here's Ameigh about to see how huge our scoop was (yay!):

OK, evaluation time:

Like I said, the split-scoop serving was gargantuan!  Wowza!  And it was only $4.50, which is not bad at all.  First taste was a knockout - and the consistency was right on.  The vanilla here was pretty darn sweet, which for some of us was awesome, and some of us didn't especially like as much.  But we all agreed that we would definitely be back.

There were a few drawbacks, though. We learned while we were there that although Grand Ole does make all their ice cream, their ingredients come largely from a large national food distributor (not to be named here, but it rhymes with "risko") and they don't really source locally at all, which disappointed some of us.  And - overall, we weren't crazy about the cookies and cream.  The cookies tasted a little "fake." But overall, a very solid performance. You stay classy, Grand Ole Creamery.


Our third stop was the Pumphouse Creamery in South Minneapolis.

The Pumphouse Creamery was the only shop none of the four of us had been to before. And it's adorable!  Seriously, you guys. Check this place out. It's nestled into a super cute south Minneapolis neighborhood (48th and Chicago - near Pepito's and the Parkway Theater), squeezed in next to a wood-fire pizza place. And there was a parking lot! Big bonus.  First (and only!) parking lot of the day.

We were pretty impressed with Pumphouse because of their hyper-local, super-green, socially conscious focus. They had photos of the farms that raise the dairy cows who make the milk from which the ice cream was made ON THE WALL!  They even get their fruit from local farms. Their fair trade chocolate was sourced from a local chocolatier... and they served us our scoops in Greenware!  Biodegradable!  Seriously, you guys. Shut up. You're frickin adorable.

The inside of the shop was really clean and simple (which some of us loved, some not so much), and they didn't have tons of flavors, but a good mix of favorites and creative/weird options (Sunflower Butter! Local Buckwheat Honey! Rogue Chocolate using Hispaniola!). There wasn't really any seating, though - and the shop was kind of tucked away. But overall, we liked it.

The scoops, however, were a little (I stress - a LITTLE) disappointing.  First, they were small. The consistency was less creamy than others, and the ice cream wasn't super sweet (which again - some loved, some hated - choose your own adventure). The cookie ice cream (with Newman O's) didn't get high marks either.  Pumphouse didn't win the day (they came in 4th place - but remember 4th the best!!), but they did certainly win Vanessa's heart, as they were her #1 at the end of the day.  And we were all really impressed with their philosophy and creativity. So shine on, you crazy diamond!

4th stop was Crema Cafe - which serves Sonny's Ice Cream - in Uptown:

This place wowed us with its classiness. I mean - check Ameigh out - she's a total supermodel in there by that lit-up ice cream case!  They are located in uptown, south of Lake Street on Lyndale, have lovely signage and lots of beautiful garden seating that makes you feel like you're enjoying a lovely afternoon in a bistro in rural Italy or something.  Ambiance got high marks all around... except one of us thought it looked more like a coffee shop or wine bar than an ice cream shop (can't remember who - Vanessa, I think?). But hey - we got a sweet table to enjoy our scoop.

Three more things about the shop: 1 - Their ice cream is organic and largely local. Awesome! 2 - Their flavors were tantalizing. Rhubarb! Black Pepper Cardamom! We all wanted to try a bunch of them. 3 - You pay for the classy atmosphere. Crema wins for most expensive treat of the day.

On to the scoops!  The vanilla bean we all agreed was about the right amount of sweetness.... but other than that, none of us were super impressed. Creaminess, consistency, uniqueness, cookie distribution, initial impression - all got pretty average marks. Sorry guys! I know - there are tons of Sonny's club members out there - and it was good, but it wasn't great! What else can I say... Crema got 3rd place.  Beautiful shop! I'll be back for the rhubarb next time..

Sebastian Joe's was our last stop of the day:

Sebastian Joe's is on Hennepin and Franklin, right there in the fray of Uptown. The line at Seb Joe's was looooooooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg and full of hip folks!! But it went pretty fast.  As you all probably know, they've got bunches of flavors - both unique and classic - and the staff there didn't really know much about the ingredients, but they were super helpful and gave us the manager's number, which we appreciated.

They layout of the shop wasn't super satisfactory - as again, you had to walk in and through the line to find the end, but they have tons of seating, both inside and out. 

About the tasting - first, we all loved the Oreo. Best Oreo of the day for sure! Other than that, sorry SJoes - we just weren't super impressed. The vanilla wasn't particularly remarkable or memorable, really.  It just didn't knock our socks off. And though most of us agreed that we'd definitely be back (and maybe Seb Joes would dominate on the flavors ... that's another tasting question entirely), in our tasting, they came in last place. But last place of ice cream makers!!! Remember?


So - who was the winner!??? Izzy's - the new Saint Paul kid? Or Grand Ole Creamery - the classic that never goes out of style!!!!?????

Drumroll.

Izzy's took the day!   Congratulations, Jeff and the Izzy's crew!  You are the best ice cream shop in the Twin Cities!  You've got a swell shop and tasty ice cream there. The TC Taste Buds salute you!

Next, we're off to the state fair - to find the best FRIES.  Any stops you suggest? Leave a comment or suggestion... we'd love to hear it!

Until then - go eat tons of ice cream.  For us!
xoxo

Betsy


*Check out the song "Ice Cream" by Muscles. Right now! Do it!