Churn Urban Creamery

Pale green. Pale pink. That’s what I seek when I look for quality ice cream.

When I was a kid, I was a big fan of bubble gum ice cream. The ice cream was a pleasant blue that surrounded colorful gumballs. Sometimes the color of the gumball would be left as a mark in the ice cream and reveal its white interior. Completely artificial ice cream.

And so as my taste buds become refined (and I still miss those days of the innocent bubble gum ice cream), I learned what made an artificial ice cream.

As a designer, I understand why certain foods have to be colored. Everyday consumers don’t trust a food that isn’t exactly what it is. So that’s why the Starbucks Strawberries ‘n Cream frappe has to be pink. Consumers don’t trust it if it’s a pale pink—because where’s the strawberries? So the frappe doesn’t sell well with its natural color. Obviously consumers don’t think that the cream and milk itself weakens the color’s intensity.

And the same applies for mint. Which to me is a travesty. Ice cream doesn’t have to be bright green. In Italy, I would not even order gelato from a shop if the mint flavors was a bright unnatural green. Also too, it bothered me that everyday consumers didn’t understand that a mint ice cream is meant to be minty. “But it tastes like toothpaste!” they exclaim. The dear truth is that toothpaste uses real mint and interestingly the mint typically sold in stores (or the one that we grew up with) is entirely artificial.

So at churn, I was impressed by the ice cream. After interviewing so many ice cream shops, I knew how it was not to be swayed by the everyday consumers. Even more so, the dedication to incorporate natural flavors into the ice cream. It’s not only a big undertaking, but the return on the value is rather low, beyond the feeling of integrity.

At Churn, which I finally found after finding the correct Andytown Coffee, I had the ice cream that was so much like its natural counterpart—strawberries and mint. Served from a small cart (like a pop-up) within the cafe, I tasted the flavors and chose the two—the ones that really were outstanding.

And that’s how I had it.

This ? ice cream tasted completely like their ingredients!! A double scoop of ?mint chip stracciatella (tasted like real mint!) and ?strawberries n cream ( completely full of the Watsonville strawberries!) . . . #nofilter #icecream #dessert #mint #strawberry #foodie

A post shared by Jenn Ng (@jennism) on Jul 8, 2017 at 7:37pm PDT