Salt & Straw’s Summer Picnic Series

Could ice cream really be for dinner and dessert? That’s the new approach taken by our friends at Salt & Straw ice cream. This month’s Summer Picnic Series features flavors that are none other than what you’d find in a picnic, from dinner to side dish to dessert. We tried them all with a panel of family members who were open-minded about having a picnic made entirely of ice cream. (But seriously, who wouldn’t want to try that?)

Clockwise from top right: Sour Cherry Pie, Mac & Cheese, Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken, Grilled Peach White Chocolate Custard, and Pink Rose & Watermelon Sorbet in the center. Photo credit: Salt & Straw.

Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken

Let’s start with the big one: Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken. This flavor is “A sweet, savory, spiced vanilla ice cream with crispy bits of fried chicken croissant. Made with Ezell’s famous chicken.” The “fried chicken croissant” is basically the crispy coating that you would find on fried chicken. And although there is chicken fat in the recipe to give it “heft” and a nice mouth feel, there’s no actual chicken. Still, this flavor did surprisingly well among our skeptical family taste testers. “It has a nice sweet and salty contrast,” noted one. Another gave big thumbs up to the crispy fried pieces. This one definitely wins the prize for the flavor that surprised everyone.

Three cartons of Salt & Straw’s Summer Picnic Series ice cream with a bowl of Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken ice cream.

Smoked Mac & Cheese

If you’re going to have fried chicken at a picnic, you’ll need mac & cheese, right? This Smoked Mac & Cheese ice cream from the Summer Picnic Series features savory Flour + Water Foods pasta and Beecher’s Smoked Flagship Cheese. This was another ice cream about which the family felt initially skeptical. The flavor was interesting; it certainly had much of the same sweet and salty vibe that the fried chicken ice cream had. But some of our tasters felt let down after trying the Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken and then moving on to this one. Still, the smoked cheese flavor got a big thumbs up. We also watched people moving in for seconds. “It grows on you,” was one comment.

Grilled Peach White Chocolate Custard

Moving further into the “dessert” category, we started our sweet courses with Grilled Peach White Chocolate Custard. And this one was a gigantic hit. The rich custard boasts ribbons of grilled peach jam that really tastes like fresh peaches. As we tasted this, we had the thought that this is the kind of elevated dessert where Salt & Straw really shines. We could imagine fresh peaches from the farmers’ market, perfectly roasted, going right into this custard. There was no question about this one being a favorite – it was gone in seconds.

Sour Cherry Pie

This Sour Cherry Pie flavor features all-American cherry pie, studded with chunks of almond pie crust and a splash of amaretto. And again, this sophisticated take on cherry pie ice cream is classic Salt & Straw. Our taste-testers gave big thumbs up to the sweet-and-sour cherry flavor with the amaretto taking it up one more level. “It’s honestly the best cherry pie I’ve ever had,” raved one taster.

Dinner to dessert: Cinnamon Honey Fried Chicken, Smoked Mac & Cheese, and Pink Rose & Watermelon Sorbet flavors on a cone.

Pink Rosé and Watermelon Sorbet

We finished off the “dessert” course with this light and refreshing watermelon and rosé sorbet with housemade rosé-raspberry jam (made with Sokol Blosser Winery). Even though Salt & Straw considered this one the “picnic starter” we happily mad this the last course. This flavor is incredibly refreshing. Plus, it hits just that right note of sweet but not too sweet. True story; don’t judge – we had a little bowl for breakfast one morning. Who could argue with that?

About Salt & Straw

Salt & Straw is the brainchild of two cousins, Kim and Tyler Malek, who wanted to create a neighborhood gathering place with top-notch ice cream. The iconic Portland-based brand is known for its support of local artisans and causes. All of its cream comes from the fifth-generation family-owned Scott Brothers Dairy. And each of its ingredients “tell a story,” from wild nettles foraged in a Washington forest, to Grandma Malek’s almond brittle.

The Salt & Straw team also challenges ideas about what ice cream should look like or be made from. We featured their “Upcycled” ice cream series last summer. These flavors all use some pure, fresh, and perfectly usable ingredients that would otherwise go to waste in the production process, such as the whey in yogurt making.

You can try Salt & Straw’s Summer Picnic Series all through the month of August at Salt & Straw locations. If there’s not a Salt & Straw scoop shop near you, you can order online.

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Blogger disclosure: Salt & Straw sent our family ice cream flavors for review.