Every month, Salt & Straw rotates through seasonal flavors, ranging from Cinnamon & Honey Fried Chicken to the classic Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip. The spooky Halloween Series consists of five flavors: The Great Candycopia, Creepy Crawly Critters, Jack o’ Lantern Pumpkin Bread, Blackberry Tamales and Essence of Ghost.
This fall, Salt & Straw’s signature waffle cone shop scent of sweet cream with a hint of salt, is filled with something else: Halloween. Whether you pride yourself on being a pumpkin spice latte connoisseur or classic trick-or-treat candy lover, the October lineup has a spooky flavor for everyone.
Like true autumn enthusiasts, we enjoyed the holy trinity flavors of fall in the Jack o’ Lantern Pumpkin Bread flavor which was made of ginger, cinnamon and pumpkin. The “pumpkin spice” ice cream included pumpkin bread crumbs and frozen cream cheese, dyed orange and yellow to match the fall theme. Although the bread brought a chewy texture, the cinnamon and ginger flavors became too strong. We would have preferred dark chocolate, or coconut to calm the overpowering flavors after a few bites. Nevertheless, this pumpkin spice latte-inspired ice cream is perfect for die-hard cinnamon lovers.
Creepy Crawly Critters is a soft green base of matcha speckled by chunks of chocolate-covered insects. Made in collaboration with the pre-Hispanic candied insect shop Don Bugito, this matcha-chocolate-insect ice cream features flavors of toffee and almond-like nuttiness. Described as a “simple matcha ice cream,” it lacked vegetal notes, leaning towards the sweeter side, which caused it to lack the natural earthiness of tea. Coconut toffee mealworms and chocolate-covered crickets added a nice crunch to the texture, but it would have tasted better with a stronger matcha hue. While this flavor was intimidating at first, we ended up enjoying the crunchy insects. If you are willing to go outside of your comfort zone and add insects to your palate, we would highly recommend this unique flavor.
Salt & Straw’s newest flavor this month, Essence of Ghost, is described as a swirl of creamy gray chocolate ice cream, infused with scotch and black liquorice notes, and includes a light vanilla sherbet. However, overpowered by liquorice, the ice cream lacked both the chocolate and vanilla flavors. The smokiness of the scotch left a strong aftertaste resembling star anise — ashy and oily. Even when isolating the “airy” vanilla sherbet, the mix of flavor was buried in licorice and scotch. The fruity and creamy texture of sherbet was not easy to differentiate either, adding unnecessary complexity to the already clashing flavors. The ice cream lacked the “wisps of sweetness,” promised, and was replaced by a strong, woody flavor. The intention was to be “startling and somewhat confusing,” and it certainly was from first bite to last lick. Liquorice fans, this flavor is for you.
A Halloween classic since 2015, The Great Candycopia features a salted butterscotch ice cream mixed with nostalgic homemade candies — Reese’s, Snickers, Kit Kats, Heath Bars and bourbon vanilla-toffee almond brittle. The uneven distribution of candies kept us guessing on which candy we were getting. However, the variety of chocolate candies didn’t bond well with each other, giving an overwhelming mouthful — especially the Reese’s. The peanut butter overpowered some bites due to big clumps. Despite the incompatible flavors, the differing candies offered a wide range of textures, a pleasant surprise of variation between the smooth butterscotch ice cream and the crunch from the wafers, toffee and brittle. The flavor made us feel like kids trick or treating and watching horror movies; definitely a sweet-tooth pick.
This month’s fruity flavor is the Blackberry Tamale sherbert, filled with tart and fruity blackberry notes, churned with a buttery masa harina caramel cinnamon coconut pudding as well as crumbled cornbread. Made in the spirit of Día de los Muertos, the sherbet incorporates masa, a maize dough, to give the authentic taste of the tamales of Michoacán. While the fruity combination of blackberry and tart notes create a perfect jammy pie, the grainy texture of the cornbread paired perfectly with the sherbet’s smooth fruity texture. Though the sherbet and cornbread paired well, the caramel cinnamon coconut pudding wasn’t distinguishable from the other flavors and was generally overpowered by the blackberry-tamale. Nonetheless, the sherbet was a near-perfect JAM packed tamale in a cup.
Over this month’s Salt & Straw flavors, the two standout scoops were Creepy Crawly Critters and Blackberry Tamales. They added depth and nuance, texture and balance, as well as rarity. Classics like the Jack o’ Lantern Pumpkin Bread and The Great Candycopia needed improvement, but had a nostalgic feel with specialty tastes of the Halloween season. Our least favorite, Essence of Ghost, has a distinctive flavor that wasn’t quite replicable in other ice creams. As a whole, the October line up is a creative combination of flavors familiar to our taste buds.
