Ever since readily available ice arrived in Seattle in 1872, ice cream “saloons” gave those in the Pacific Northwest a true taste of creamed goodness. The region’s modern ice cream culture evolved from a century of sweet treats at saloons, parlors, and soda shops, to unique scoop shops across Washington and Oregon showcasing a diversity of local ingredients.
From university dairies and family farms, to ice cream brands in urban centers and on pushcarts, Pacific Northwest ice cream concepts have expanded locally and nationally, such as Salt & Straw’s growth from a cart in 2011 to a modern ice cream movement, with shops across the PNW, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York.
But PNW ice cream is far more than one shop, and regional dairies built up followings decades ago. Umpqua Dairy from Roseburg, Oregon, and Tillamook (the largest tourist attraction on the Oregon Coast) began operations in the 1930s and 1940s, respectively. Washington State University’s student-run ice cream production known as Ferdinand’s Ice Cream Shoppe added a different wrinkle in the 1940s.
The abundance of local milk has turned into a haven for scoop shops, some sourcing milk straight from grass-fed local herds and others opting for an ice cream base product from these dairies, such as Edaleen Dairy in Lynden, Washington, which supplies some of the most popular scoop shops in the state (along with its own handful of shops in small towns along the Canadian border).
Lopez Island Creamery introduced its from-scratch, small-batch ice cream made with local ingredients in 1982, gaining popularity across the San Juan Islands and Seattle by 2008, when Seattle-based Molly Moon’s debuted, followed by Fifty Licks in Portland in 2009 and Sweet Alchemy in Seattle in 2016.
The Pacific Northwest’s seasonal flavors celebrate local fruit, from strawberries to marionberries and peaches, as well as hazelnuts, honey, lavender, and more. the range of fresh PNW flavors calls for continued exploration. Here’s a few destinations to get you started.
Lopez Island Creamery (Anacortes, Washington)
Courtesy of Lopez Island Creamery
A small ice cream company making everything from scratch — and I mean everything — is unique. Lopez Island brings in raw milk from local farms, such as Edaleen, and pasteurizes the milk to create an ice cream base. Plus, the 16% butterfat puts a premium spin on the creaminess.
Owner Alex Thieman tells Food & Wine that the company has processed each step of production in house since 1994, blending berries that are picked and processed locally. “It adds a lot of freshness to it,” he says, noting that sometimes they even get complaints when customers find berry seeds in their ice cream. “Most of the time people are excited there is proof they are real berries.”
The creamery uses dairy from Washington cows to make its caramel and local lavender, strawberries, and blueberries for seasonal flavors. The most popular flavor, though, is the blackberry. It’s “what we are known for,” says Thieman. “It is very fresh with a great hit of flavor.”
Fans of the ice cream can watch it being made through a window at the Anacortes factory.
Nico’s Ice Cream (Portland)
Courtesy of Nico’s Ice Cream
PNW ice cream is a cultural adventure. Nico’s Ice Cream is just one example: a New Zealand-style soft serve that Daniela Perez Vargas, Nico’s head of operations in Portland, tells Food & Wine is “creamy, fruity, and delicious all at the same time.” Nico’s brings in special machines from New Zealand to blend vanilla ice cream and natural frozen fruit into the soft serve in a one-at-a-time process.
Fruit is the ingredient of choice in this style and the marionberries and strawberries, two of the most popular in Oregon, are sourced through a local fruit company. Nico’s also rotates toppings seasonally, with local additions like Portland’s Ground Up Nut Butters.
With fruit the star at Nico’s, the signature flavors include marionberry, strawberry, mango, and banana. “You cannot find a more authentic fruit ice cream around than this, which has chunks of each fruit in the soft serve,” says Perez Vargas.
Molly Moon’s (Seattle)
Courtesy of Molly Moon’s
Molly Moon’s gave Seattle a real artisan boost when it launched in 2008, pairing unique flavor combinations with local ingredients, with an in-shop experience that really helped set a trend in the Pacific Northwest. All of Molly Moon’s shops are in Washington with 90% of all ingredients from the PNW.
“We’re not just homemade — we’re neighborhood-made,” Katie Cole, the shop’s marketing director, tells Food & Wine. “Every brownie bite, swirl of jam, drizzle of vanilla bean caramel, ladle of hot fudge, and scoop of ice cream is made in the very kitchen of the shop where you’re grabbing your cone or cup.”
Molly Moon’s sources thousands of pounds of strawberries from Viva Farms in Skagit Valley, which are preserved for year-round use. The chocolate, matcha, cherries, lavender, coffee, and peaches are all local, mixing with milk from Edaleen, for signature flavors like salted caramel, strawberry, honey lavender, yeti, and sweet cream.
The shop features four seasonal ice creams each month. “This is where we get to have a little creative fun,” says Cole. “And when a flavor really resonates with our customers, it might just become a permanent part of the ‘always’ menu, or at the very least, return as an annual special.”
Salt & Straw (Portland)
Courtesy of Posy Quarterman
Salt & Straw co-founder Tyler Malek tells Food & Wine that a visit to one of the company’s scoop shops transcends ice cream. “Our unique flavors and our high level of hospitality equates to this experience that people want to spend extended amounts of time doing,” he says. “They want to come hang out and have a good time with their friends and family.”
Malek says a nonstop cycle of innovation happening in the dairy industry in Oregon really gives the ice cream makers an advantage. “Making the world’s best ice cream is pretty simple, because we’re in the backyard of all these amazing farms.”
With so many partners, the brand is constantly looking for new stories to tell, which brings new flavors every month. Malek says the story could be about chocolatiers, upcycled food, or a local berry farmer. Salt & Straw features blue cheese, lavender, and pears from Oregon and co-owns a hazelnut farm that contributes to the Cookies and Cream flavor. The shop partners with Steven Smith Tea for tea flavors and Olympia Provisions (an artisan charcuterie) for an Oregon ham flavor. “It’s almost an understatement to say we’re ‘Portland Proud,’” he says. “We love to use ingredients from the state of Oregon.”
Sweet Alchemy Ice Creamery (Seattle)
Courtesy of Steven Kim for Sweet Alchemy
Tucked in Seattle’s University District you’ll find the home base for Sweet Alchemy, where founder Lois Ko tells Food & Wine she’s trying to source as much as she can from within 100 miles and then make her French custard-style ice cream within the shop’s confines. “I love that my small-batch approach allows me to test our new recipes, listen to customers, and be creative,” the former University of Washington art student says.
Berries reign supreme in Washington, and all of Sweet Alchemy’s strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and tayberries come from small farmers in the Skagit Valley. With its cold temperatures at night and sun during the day, the region produces the sweetest, most flavorful berries that Ko has had around the world. “Tayberry ice cream should truly be the PNW ice cream flavor,” she says.
Along with Tayberry, her Blueberry Lavender, Makgeolli, London Fog, and UW Honey are standout flavors. The blueberries come from a family farm in Mount Vernon and the lavender from Arlington. Makgeolli, named after a fermented rice drink that’s part of Ko’s Korean roots, is a collaboration with RaiBrew, a rice brewer in Woodinville’s wine country north of Seattle. Seattle Urban Honey, with a hive on the University of Washington campus, flavors the UW honey. Ko says, “Every harvest the flavor changes slightly depending on what is flowering and growing on the grounds, and it truly makes me feel humbled to be a part of this food ecosystem.”
Fifty Licks (Portland)
Fifty Licks owner Chad Draizin tells Food & Wine his shop brings technical precision to creative flavor, something he first used as a brewer learning the science behind transforming ingredients. Now he’s applying a French style to a slow and methodical process, releasing a few new recipes each year.
“Our north star is simply making the most delicious ice cream possible,” he says. “I’m always thinking about balance — our sweetness leans toward an adult palate, and I love to create contrasts within flavors to keep things interesting and complex.”
That is all seen with Water Avenue Coffee beans roasted around the corner, Flying Bee Ranch honey, and brioche from Dos Hermanos Bakery for a French toast ice cream. Fifty Licks makes most of the components for its vegan ice cream in-house, including the ice cream base, brownies, blondies, caramels, and ganache. The shop sources single-origin vanilla beans that pair with Madagascar vanilla and partners with Mizuba Tea Co. to source shade-grown matcha from Japan. “It’s about creating depth through thoughtful combinations,” Draizin says.
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