With the grand opening of Soft Peaks Ice Cream in Gastown in February this year, a bunch of bloggers (me included! Yay!) were invited to bring a friend and pay a visit to their store on Alexander Street for a free sample. So of course I brought my partner-in-crime Fannypack to give Soft Peaks a try and see what their organic hoopla was all about.
The biggest selling point of Soft Peaks Ice Cream is that they use Avalon organic milk as their base, as opposed to cream. Soft Peaks says this differentiation is why their ice cream has less than 6% fat, while the typical cream-heavy ice cream has an average of 15%. Sounds good to me!
I of course had to have their signature item, the Honeycomb Peak ($6.75 for regular size), which is their original creamy swirl topped with a piece of local Okanagan and Fraser Valley honeycomb on top. There’s cereal at the bottom. To be honest I was very excited to try honeycomb for the first time.
My first impression was that the honeycomb was quite small. I guess the size issue could be offset by the taste- the honey flavor was very intense, and it was quite sweet. Chewing the honeycomb itself was also a new experience in itself. It was quite chewy, exactly like chewing on wax (I know what chewing on wax is like because I had braces once…you know what I’m talking about ;-)), since I guess it is beeswax afterall, but it definitely wasn’t unpleasant, and it sort of melts after a while.
As for the soft serve itself, I thought it stood up very well and was quite firm, yet still very creamy. I was able to really taste the ice cream and it stands out from its competitors in that it was just slightly sweetened. I’ve never had that before. It really let the honey or whatever other topping you choose to shine through.
I also found the ice cream to taste very milky, if that makes any sense.
Fannypack had the Green Forest ($6.75 for regular size). It was layered with sweet red beans and sprinkled with Organic Premium Matcha powder. It was also supposed to have condensed milk on top but I couldn’t taste it. But upon examining the picture, I see that the condensed milk was drizzled on the red bean, and since red bean paste is usually quite sweet, that explains why I couldn’t taste it.
Tastewise, the green tea powder and red beans was as per your usual. Nothing too exciting here but that combination is always a good match.
All in all I was very impressed with Soft Peaks Ice Cream. I wouldn’t mind having it by itself too just to enjoy the creaminess and milkiness of the soft serve next time I’m in the area.
Disclaimer: The food were provided free of charge by the business. All opinions are solely my own.
Related Posts:
