Salt and Straw ice cream, which recently opened a new store at City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, California, is known for its often exotic flavors. For Spring this year, the West coast chain has a new series of seasonal flavors which comes with a challenge: “Eat Your Flowers.”
Salt and Straw isn’t just slapping an edible blossom atop a vanilla cone and calling it a day, either. The store has four new flavors, each of which allow patrons to literally eat different kinds of flowers, in delicious ice cream form.
Rhubarb crumble with toasted anise is built around the anise flower, which has a licorice flavor often used in Indian cuisine, and to flavor licorice candies. The flower is combined with rhubarb in a baked crumble, which is served over vanilla ice cream.
Jasmine Milk Tea and Chocolate is inspired by the West Coast’s ubiquitous boba tea (as well as the tea traditions of China and Taiwan. Most people probably don’t know that the “jasmine” in jasmine tea refers to a small, white, fragrant flower which imparts its unique flavor to the tea, and also to this ice cream.
Many Bay Area homeowners have jasmine in their backyards, and if you walk around the area, you’ve almost certainly experienced its powerful, sweet smell, perhaps without knowing. In this case, jasmine flowers are combined with green tea and chocolate to make Salt and Straw’s ice cream.
Wildflower Honey with Ricotta Walnut Lace Cookies takes a different tack, distilling the essence of the Bay Area’s wildflowers (with the help of bees) into a lemon and ricotta flavor which is blended into honey ice cream, along with crumbles of oat cookies.
Salt and Straw’s final flower-inspired flavor is Mathilde’s Hibiscus and coconut sherbet, a vegan flavor which celebrates the work of a Haitan woman who created a hibiscus ginger brew inspired by her country and its flowers, and is now partnering with a Portland, Oregon company Portland Mercado to bring it to the United States--and to Salt and Straw’s menu.
On a recent visit, I ate some flowers myself by trying the Wildflower Honey and Ricotta Lace Cookies flavor. It was delicious--a subtle blend with strong hints of lemon, which reminded me of the creaminess of lemon ricotta pancakes.
For all their seasonal flavors, Salt and Straw works with artisan producers, including several Bay Area companies. These include Red Blossom Tea from San Francisco, and local beekeepers who supply the honey for the company’s honey ice cream, ensuring that it really is capturing the essence of local wildflowers.
In addition to their new San Ramon store, Salt and Straw has locations in Pacific Heights, Hayes Valley, Burlingame, Palo Alto, Valley Fair and Oakland. Check them out, and this Spring you can be sure to eat your flowers, too.