Fresh Mint With Toasted Marshmallow Topping
From The Penny Ice Creamery in Santa Cruz, CA
At the recommendation of our AirBnb hosts, they highly, HIGHLY recommended we try Penny Ice Creamery. Since they were such gracious hosts and so enthusiastic about it, I decided to try it. I mean, that’s the whole point, right? Eating ice creams that are so good that you feel compelled to share it with others, just so they can experience the same happiness as you!
So Penny Ice Creamery is a quaint little ice cream shop with rotating flavors and reasonable prices- and by reasonable prices, you can get a single scoop for less than $4. But the part where this place shined and differentiated itself was the roasted marshmallow topping- which, much like a waffle-cone or some other premium feature can be added for an extra dollar. Furthermore, this marshmallow topping is made fresh at The Penny Ice Creamery, and it’s always nice to see shops creating their own anything in addition to the ice cream itself. Now is it worth it? I’d almost say so. If eaten right, it can provide an interesting flavor dichotomy wherein there is a hot fluffy semi-liquid oozing marshmallow, followed by a cool and thicker ice cream consistency. Together it’s a beautiful thing that’s always a fun thing to eat.
Now there are two things you need to consider about the marshmallow topping.
1) I said “if eaten the right way.” And by that I mean , eaten fast. Like, no time to take the perfect Instagram pic, “eaten fast.” Because if you do take that adorable AF IG photo, the coolness of the ice cream will chill the marshmallow topping, and you’ll lose a lot of what makes this temperature difference interesting.
2) Sugar rush. The marshmallow topping on top of an already sweet ice cream can be borderline too sweet. What!? Too sweet? Does such a thing even exist? The answer is a hard yes. And while my personal threshold for sweets is pretty high, even I have a limit. So if your sugar maximum is on the lower end, perhaps you should refrain from the toasted marshmallow topping. Another way to avoid this intense jaw-locking rush is to choose your ice cream core carefully. I chose a fresh mint center, so the mint/sugar combo was actually really nice and not intense at all.
With all that talk about the whipped topping, I can certainly note it’s good, but to some, $5 for an average to slightly smaller sized scoop might be a little bit much, so take that as my interpretation of the price to taste to quantity ratio.
As for the flavor profile of the Fresh Mint, like I said, it’s pretty solid. They use real mint leaves, which results in a stronger mint taste- unlike your faux spearmint, or cool mint toothpaste flavors. What I’m basically trying to say is that this is much different from the traditional mint chocolate chip taste that you could get at any Rite Aid/Thrifty’s. The fresh mint taste of this ice cream is closer to something you’d smell when drinking a mojito- a refreshing, light accent. So when eaten alongside the minuscule crushed chocolate chips, the mint doesn’t overpower the chocolate in anyway, and instead, towards the end of the scoop, is more like a support accompaniment to the chocolate chip crescendo.
I will note that the mint here isn’t as strong as some of the other fresh mint ice creams I’ve tasted. I personally am a fan of the fresh mint so strong it’ll clear your sinuses and make you feel like you’re above a snow covered mountain. And it doesn’t take much mint to achieve this. If you’ve ever done any cooking with mint, you know a little bit can go a long way.
Mint Marshmallow Conclusion
Overall, this is a great stepping stone in transcending the traditional mint chocolate chip flavor, and for that, good job.
In the event you want to try Penny Ice Creamery, they’re located at: 820 41st Ave, Santa Cruz, CA 95062.
