Salt & Straw's Line Up of Summer Flavors Capture the Essence of Oregon Through Ice Cream
Portland, Ore. (PRWEB) January 24, 2014 -- This summer Portland’s Salt & Straw will bring to life the bounty of Oregon by featuring the state’s famous berries, vegetables, meats, and cocktails through unimagined ice cream flavors.
For June, Salt & Straw finds inspiration in the clinking of ice cubes on fresh-cut grass or the whirl of blenders beachside. This menu reimagines classic cocktails in ice cream form as part of a collaboration with Portland’s top bartenders. Head Ice Cream Maker, Tyler Malek, created The Summer Cocktail Ice Cream Series by first discovering the story each bartender wanted to tell in their cocktail ice cream flavor and then settling on Oregon spirits and ingredients to transform the cocktail into ice cream scoops.
In July and August, summer in Oregon brings lines at the road-side berry stands and vast vegetable offerings at the Farmer’s Markets. Salt & Straw will finish the summer with a menu of flavors around freshly picked strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, marionberries, carrots, cucumbers and watermelon, as well as with ingredients like pork belly, prosciutto, and bone marrow. The summer harvest will be at its ripest helping make flavors like Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero, Melon with Hand-Cured Prosciutto, and Black Raspberries with Pork Belly.
The Summer Cocktail Ice Cream Series will be available on June 1st. The Oregon Berry Series will be available on July 4. Each series is available via nationwide shipping through the summer. The price is $65 for five pints and can be ordered via Salt & Straw’s website http://www.saltandstraw.com.
June Summer Cocktail Ice Cream Flavors
Chocolate Chip Mint Julep
This flavor blends together an ice cream world favorite with a classic cocktail, mint, bourbon and chocolate ice cream. Combining these delicious ingredients all together was, to Brandon Wise of Imperial, a no brainer. In execution, you find Oregon roasted single-origin chocolate, Oregon grown spearmint, and a hand-selected batch of bourbon from Four Roses Distilling. This flavor truly shines as the perfect marriage of a Brandon Wise mixing experience with Salt & Straw’s kitchen full of yummy Oregon ingredients.
Strawberry & Verbena Pimm's Cup
A sweet and bitter, citrusy pop in the mouth. Working closely with Ross Hunsinger at Portland’s Aviary, this ice cream taps into his bag of flavor manipulation techniques to create a subtly bright strawberry and fresh lemon verbena ice cream. The real inspiration is a Gin marmalade that spikes on the palate with a strong hit of Portland-distilled Aviation Gin.
Lemon Amaretto Sour Sherbet
When asked what cocktail is nostalgically summery to him, Jeffrey Morgenthaler of Clyde Common smiled and made us an Amaretto Sour. Capturing that childish smile in a scoop... it’s hard to taste this flavor without a grin. Eye opening punches of lemon egg cream top off an intensely fruity amaretto sherbet in this delicious combination. At home, dare to go the extra mile with a shot of cask-proof bourbon poured over the top.
Pineapple Honey Dorléac
We worked closely with Kyle Webster of Expatriate on this cocktail themed ice cream. Both Kyle and Salt & Straw’s Tyler Malek are self-taught with one building cocktails and the other ice creams based off of past experiences and personal flavor exploration. Together, Kyle and Tyler sat down with a case of ingredients ranging from bitters, essential oils, and fruits from every corner of the world and began riffing. The result: A honey, vodka, and aperol ice cream based off of Kyle’s own Dorléac recipe paired with a gentle ribbon of pineapple caramel.
Rhubarb & Saffron Champagne Cocktail
With the background of a pastry chef, Evan Zimmerman of The Woodsman Tavern crafts cocktails that make more sense from a chef’s perspective than from your average bartender. In a combination that carefully combines only a few delicate flavors, this ice cream is subtly yeasty from the champagne with a tart and carefully flavored ribbon of saffron and rhubarb jelly. A combination reminiscent of that perfect summer-fresh rhubarb spritzer.
July Oregon Berry Flavors
Strawberry with Cilantro Lime Cheesecake
This Summer, we are getting thousands of pounds of strawberries from Deep Roots Farm, located in Albany, OR. These strawberries are picked and delivered the same day we use them, creating a strawberry ice cream that is as fresh as it is delicious!
Birthday Cakes and Blackberries
Frosting flavored ice cream with ribbons of cake and blackberry jam. This blackberry jam is extra special because it uses Evergreen Blackberries from the Willamette Valley. These berries are pitch black in color and wonderfully sweet. With this combo it might as well be everyone’s birthday!
Goat Cheese Marionberry Habanero
We got our hands on some of the best goat cheese to come out of the Willamette Valley from Portland's own, Portland Creamery. Using their "Sweet Fire" flavored chevre as inspiration; we churned out a tart goat cheese ice cream and swirled in ribbons of Marionberry Jam that has been infused with habanero peppers.
Summer Cucumber & Raspberry Sorbet
These raspberries, from South Barlow Berries, are bright and tart, the summer cucumbers are bitter and sweet. Each compliments the other so well... a scoop of this sorbet simply makes you smile!
Black Raspberries and Pork Belly
Oregon black raspberries can only be harvested for three weeks out of the year, making for an incredibly rare and unique berry experience. Taking advantage of their deep flavor, we paired these berries with a salty, smoky pork belly ice cream. This ice cream is indulgence at its finest!
Featured Flavors in August and September:
Tomato Water Olive Oil Sherbet
Tomato season in Portland, OR is short…. like four weeks short! But when it comes, we get some of the best tomatoes in the world. It’s almost like the tomatoes know that they will only be at their ripest for a few weeks and they want to make each season completely worth it! We’ve paired these uber-fresh tomatoes with Arbequina Olive Oil from Red Ridge Farms in Dayton, OR and a touch of lemon zest. This flavor is clean, sweet, and one that we will remember all year.
Carrot Watermelon Sorbet
To us, carrots in dessert are kind of a no brainer. We love the sweet, earthy flavors that summer carrots provide, but what we really look for when picking out carrots at the Portland Farmer’s Markets are ones that have a pleasant bitter note to them. Once we find perfectly bitter carrots, we bump up the sweetness with fresh watermelons. This combination leaves us in awe every time we try it!
Melon & Prosciutto Ice Cream
Another great salty-sweet combination provided by Italy. Re-imagining this into an ice cream was destiny for Salt & Straw. We teamed up with Portland’s Olympic Provisions vast array of charcuterie twists and turns through golden, sweet and fresh summer cantaloupe ice cream. A truly beautiful marriage of historical flavors and Portland culinary magic.
Bone Marrow & Bourbon Smoked Cherries
Unexpected and delightful, slow roasted and clarified bone marrow brings texture, flavor, and depth that has never been found in ice cream. In our kitchens we smoked Oregon Bing Cherries then cured them in spices and Portland distilled bourbon to add depth to this flavor. If you only get to try one flavor of ice cream this year, be sure it’s this one!
About Salt & Straw Ice Cream
Salt & Straw Ice Cream is a small batch ice cream company that partners with local artisans, producers and farmers to create unique and gourmet flavors. Their ice cream is handmade using only all natural cream from local farms throughout the Willamette Valley. Their flavors showcase the best local, organic and sustainable ingredients from Oregon farmers and artisans, such as Rogue Creamery, Stumptown Coffee Roasters and Olympic Provisions charcuterie, as well as imported flavors from small hand-picked farms from around the world. The company started serving eight flavors from an ice cream cart in May of 2011 and then moved to their first brick and mortar location on Aug. 12, 2011 at 2035 NE Alberta St. with an expanded ice cream flavor menu and new unique sundaes, inventive milkshakes and floats along with goods from local artisans. Their NW location opened on Apr. 27, 2012 at 838 NW 23rd Ave. and their SE scoop shop opened on July 2, 2013 at 3346 SE Division St. All shops use 100 percent renewable energy as well as fully compostable serveware for all to go items. Scoops of hand-made, small batch ice creams, sundaes, milkshakes and floats as well as pints to go are available at each shop and served with impeccable service. Favorites, seasonal and design your own variety packs are available for online purchase and can be shipped anywhere in the United States. Salt & Straw’s ice cream cart is available for catering parties and events. Find more information at http://www.saltandstraw.com or call 971-271-8168. Follow us on Facebook at Salt and Straw Ice Cream or Twitter @SaltandStraw.
Melissa Broussard, Broussard Communications, http://www.broussardcommunications.com, +1 (503) 702-4620, [email protected]
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