fbpx

We are OPEN (daily 1pm to 10pm) Find Us: 729 Montana Ave STE 2 Santa Monica CA 90403.

Category Archives: Flavors

Salted Caramel

August Flavor of the Month – Salted Caramel

August Flavor of the Month – Salted Caramel

Hello lovely people and welcome to August. The last month of Summer and one of our personal favorites. The beginning of a new month also marks the arrival of a new flavor for the month. This month sees the return for the second-time ever of Salted Caramel. Our take on, what has become a modern classic. Our Salted Caramel flavor is made from Coconut Cream, Sea Salt and Date. That’s it.

The dates is what gives this flavor that caramel flavor and then a hint of sea salt gives it that perfect “salted edge”. If you love salted caramel this is the perfect flavor for you.

Did you know…

Did you know that Salted Caramel was invested in 1977 by a French pastry chef Henri Le Roux in the form of salted butter caramel with crushed nuts using a Breton demi-sel butter. By the 2000 high end chefs started adding bits of salt to caramel and chocolate dishes. By 2008 the flavor had hit the mass market and the rest, as they say is history.

What makes our Salted Caramel Unique

“What makes our Salted Caramel Unique” we hear you say. Well, believe it or not it actually doesn’t contain any caramel.

‘Wait, what, no Caramel?”

Yep, that’s right. Our Salted Caramel contains no caramel. Sticking to our philosophy and ice cream mantra of “plant -based, vegan, using minimal ingredients and using only natural fruit sugars”, this flavor actually originated from our Salted Date Flavor. We found that turning down the saltiness, using coconut cream instead of coconut milk, and added more dates turned this flavor into the perfect Salted Caramel flavor.

Color, texture and flavor profile 

Color – Champagne gold in color

Texture – Thick and creamy

Flavor – Medium with a salty edge

Recommended Toppings – peanut butter, carob chips, chocolate chips

Recommended Parings – Salted Caramel + Chocolate

Availability 

Salted Caramel will be available from our Santa Monica store for the month of August and online from Postmates, Grubhub, Doordash and Ubereats.

Big Big Love

Vegan Vanilla Ice Cream

We Finally Made A Vanilla Flavor

“Life is too short to be Vanilla”

Vanilla. VAN-IL-LA. Three syllables which for three and a half years we could not utter. Harry Potter had “He-who-shall-not-be-named“, we had the “V-word“. For three and a half years we have been fighting and resisting making a vanilla. Yes, three and a half years we were an ice cream store with no Vanilla flavor. Can you imagine that, one of the world’s most popular flavors and we didn’t make it. Every time someone would come in and ask for Vanilla a little bit of us would die on the inside. SPOILER ALERT: we now have a Vanilla flavor.

Now you may be thinking why? Well, let us explain.

Why we never had a Vanilla flavor?

Now, don’t get us wrong. It is not that we have never tried to make a Vanilla flavor before. In fact, we have tried several times to make a Vanilla flavor with disastrous consequences. The first time we ever launched a Vanilla flavor it was Superbowl Sunday. Patriots vs Jaguars (we think). We were still soft serve at this point in time. We poured the mixture into the machine and for about 45 – 60 minutes the flavor worked. It was soft, people liked the flavor (albeit more coconut than vanilla in taste) and everything was right in the world. Then disaster struck. The mixture hard-froze, the soft-serve machine imploded and it sounded like an 18-wheeler had just decided to slam on the brakes to a dead stop from 60 mph to 0 mph. It was like a train crash had happening in the store. The sound was unbearable.

Vanilla had definitely not worked.

1.5 Years later – attempt no.2

Broken from our first attempt and the soft serve machine we decided to have another go. We got rid of the soft serve machines and we were now scooping. Life was good. Flavors and texture had improved from batch freezing rather than using a soft serve machine. We could also now do more flavors and more variety without having to worry about the soft serve machines. Enough time had passed and we had an ice cream truck (which meant even more questions – “why no vanilla?“). It was time to give Vanilla another go.

This time the recipe was a mixture of coconut milk, vanilla and maple syrup. The result was great flavor. It just didn’t taste of Vanilla. Maple syrup is a great natural sweetener, but its flavor is way too strong. It makes everything taste like Maple Syrup. Plus because maple syrup is naturally so sweet it meant that you only have to use a tiny amount. The result was a coconut maple tasting flavor that crumbled when it froze and was served. We tried it out for a few weeks, but the texture was just a no-go.

Defeated we hung up the towel on Vanilla once again.

Attempt no. 3

Fast forward another year and Vanilla starts entering into our minds again. Time heals and we did not want to get defeated by Vanilla. It was time to give it another go and this time we were determined to get it right. We spent 3 months researching and testing new sweeteners and combinations. Monk Fruit (…definitely no), coconut nectar, coconut sugar, maple syrup and finally back to date syrup. By a process of elimination, we knew date would work the best. We had also starting using Coconut Cream instead of Coconut Milk – the higher fat content would help with the freezing and setting process (something we had found with other flavors we launched like Matcha and Coffee).

The real issue was how to get rid or eliminate that “coconut flavor” as much as possible to get that smooth Vanilla taste. At the same time you had to balance getting just the right amount of dates before the taste became too “date-like”.

It took about 10 different recipes and a process of constant trial and error, but we finally had the taste down. The next part was hoping and praying that it would set okay and be something we could scoop and serve.

The morning the day after the night before

It was the morning the day after the night before we made our first batch. The bucket was sitting in the freezer overnight it was set and ready to be tested. We had been up all night thinking about Vanilla and hoping it would scoop. That morning we opened up the freezer as soon as we came in and lifted the lid. It looked too hard. On gosh, it wasn’t going to scoop. This was bad. Defeated we reached for a scoop and went in for what was going to be the inevitable failure.

Except something happened.

It scooped. It like really scooped.

In that one moment three and half years of V-words had been conquered. We literally jumped for joy and best of all the flavor tasted amazing.

Vanilla – Love it

Thomas Edison said that he didn’t fail 1000 times when he tried to make the light bulb, he just found 1000 ways not to make a light bulb. Life, like many things, is persistence. Fail, get up again and try again. Our Vanilla journey took three and half years. Yes, making a Vanilla flavor may not be the most important thing in the world (especially given at the time of writing there is a global pandemic), but there is a moral to all of this. Whatever you are doing, whatever you want to achieve – persist. There are always bumps in the road, there are always hurdles. Sometimes the biggest hurdle is yourself. Stay strong and persist and you will eventually reach your goal. You can’t get to your destination without taking the steps.

…and you know what? Vanilla is now one of our best selling and most popular flavors. It is even our go to scoop when we want one – we never in our life time thought we would write those words.

Next time you are in the store or ordering from the truck or online make sure to give the Vanilla a-go and let us know what you think.

Frozen Fruit Co’s Vanilla flavor is made from coconut, vanilla and date – that’s it!

Big Love

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays

WARNING: From the get-go, we want to be honest. If you do not like peanut butter this blog piece and Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays are probably not going to be much interest to you. We apologize – but are unbiased towards all things Peanut Butter.

How can you improve on Chocolate? Surely, it is just one of those things in life which you cannot improve. As the saying goes:

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”

― Linda Grayson

And we couldn’t agree more. However, what if we told you there is a way to improve Chocolate? And no we are not crazy. We found a way and all it involves is one extra ingredient.

What is that one ingredient?

Well, it’s nothing other than rich, creamy, decadent peanut butter. Say hello to our new Chocolate Peanut Butter. Made from coconut milk, cocoa, date and a swirl of unsweetened peanut butter. That’s it.

Is this a new flavor?

Nope, it isn’t. We have done our Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavor before. In fact, it is possibly our most popular and requested flavor. We just have never made it a staple on the menu. We don’t like running nuts through our ice cream machinery so mix in the Peanut Butter by hand after it is made. It is a true work out.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays

We get asked about this flavor so much that we decided to introduce it one day a week at the store. On a Tuesday. Hence forth let Tuesdays be known no longer as Tuesday (named after the Nordic god Tyr – in case you were interested – also how do you even pronounce that “Tyr”) but as “Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays”.

Why only Tuesday?

“Okay, seriously why are you doing this flavor only one day a week and only on a Tuesday?”

Great question. It is a combination of Economics and Production. The flavor is so popular and so intensive to make we decided to limit it to one day of the week. This will just make you wanted it more. Plus Tuesdays are a slower day of the week if we are being completely honest.

Can I get it on Wednesday?

No.

How about on Friday?

No.

What about on a Sunday?

Er…No.

Hold on – what about on Monday?

Seriously!? It is only available on a Tuesday – hence “Chocolate Peanut Butter Tuesdays”

Oh, okay I get it. What about on a Saturday?

We are not even going to answer that.

What type of Peanut Butter do you use?

We get asked this question a lot on this flavor. We use Wholefoods 365 Creamy No Sugar Added Peanut Butter. It made from dry roasted peanuts and salt. We like it because of the simple and clean ingredient list and that it is unsweetened.

Final Thoughts

We love Peanut Butter, but if you don’t do not worry we only have this flavor one day of the week and we always have our other flavors. If you love PB then we will see you on Tuesdays.

Big Love ️

Banana Pumpkin Spice

NEW FALL SPECIAL – Banana Pumpkin Spice

Yes, that is right. You have been waiting patiently for a year, but it is finally here. Banana Pumpkin Spice is BACK! Made from Bananas, Coconut Milk, Date and just a little bit of Pumpkin Spice – it’s the perfect Fall flavor – in a scoop.
This is our third year of launching our limited edition banana pumpkin spice flavor and this year we have decided to mess with our tried and tested special by kicking up that “spice” level (yep, we messed with something that already worked). We wanted to give a more intense “spice” flavor so let us know what you think.
Tasting Profile
The Banana Pumpkin Spice hits your taste buds with a strong note of banana, this then slowly develops into the sweetness of dates and then finishes on an end note of “spice”. The more you eat the more the “spice” grows and grows.
This flavor is for all of your pumpkin fans. Those of you who for 9 months of the year ask us “when is banana pumpkin spice going to be back?”. For those of us who wait nine months of the year to live for those three months of Fall. For the rest of you – we still have Salted Chocolate on the menu.
Find Banana Pumpkin Spice only in our Montana Ave store until Thanks Giving.
Big Love
P.S. Let us know what you think of the new flavor in the comments section.