Salt & Straw’s Scary-Good Ice Cream Captures the Essence of the Halloween Spirit

Seasonal ice cream concoctions packed with candy, sinister spices and even real bugs trapped in amber are sure to leave eaters shocked and delighted

PORTLAND, Ore. (June 29, 2015) – To celebrate the Halloween season Salt & Straw head ice cream maker Tyler Malek and his team have concocted a menu of flavors that will shock and delight. Hair-raising flavors such as A Potion of Malicious Delight and Creepy Crawling Critters (with real creepy crawlers encased in an amber hard candy) or sweet options like ike Great Candycopia, a mash up of house made snickers, Whoppers and Peanut Butter Cups provide the most delicious trick and treat this October.

Typically, Salt & Straw’s monthly menus highlight seasonal ingredients and recipes, but the Halloween Series showcases a more playful approach to creating ice cream flavors that reflect the spirit of the season. The Halloween variety pack is $65 and available for nationwide shipping through Salt & Straw’s website www.saltandstraw.com. The flavors will also be available by the scoop, flight or pint at all Salt & Straw scoop shops, Oct. 2 – Nov. 5.

“No one really knows what ghosts or potions or creepy crawly critters in grass really tastes like, it’s up to the imagination, which is why we love Halloween! Our October menu encourages to forget what they think a flavor should taste like and, instead enjoy a totally new, maybe spooky, maybe sweet experience,” says Tyler  Malek. “For example, the sherbet “Essence of Ghost” is literally body-chilling, the flavor is a mysterious combo that draws on childhood memories, and the color is pale white with gentle wisps of gray like ghosts floating through a foggy field.”

Creepy Crawly Critters

Picture yourself in a lush green field. The air is fresh, the sun is shining, and tall soft grass bends beneath your hands. You notice a single grasshopper, flitting from place to place. He lands on your hand, and you gently try brush him away, but find that you can’t. You find an ant on your shirt, then several more on your cheek, and as you try to catch them they scatter. Suddenly a horde of insects is crawling, buzzing, and flying around you. They land on your hands—their hairy legs sticking to your skin. You try to run, but you trip, and fall headfirst into a teeming, squirming world of Creepy Crawly Critters. This may sound dramatic, but it’s not as far-fetched as you may think. Put yourself in this scene, with a light and fresh green-grass ice cream that hides swarms of real grasshoppers, ants and other insects, trapped in fragments of hard candy amber. … Wait, did that one just move?

Candy Corn

You skim your spoon over the colorful cross sections of this quintessential Halloween candy-inspired flavor. You take a bite, and experience the white, orange and yellow. A delightful sweetness settles on your tongue, and you detect the slightest hint of citrus—or do you? Next, you carefully work your way through each layer, the cool sweetness of white, smooth and heavy orange, and the buttery richness of yellow. Do you taste three colors? Do you see three flavors? Maybe one more spoonful will tell…

The Great Candycopia

You’ve spent weeks on the costume, days planning your walking route, and hours canvassing the neighborhood door-to-door, harvesting that delightful bounty that October 31st yields. You’re finally home; proudly eyeing the pile of precious Halloween loot, ready to enjoy the fruits of your labor. But you have a dilemma: which of your favorite Halloween candies do you eat first? Thankfully, we offer a solution. Big chunks of completely homemade Snickers, Whoppers and Peanut Butter Cups. You won’t have to waste any time deciding which candy you like best this year; you won’t even need the costume.

A Potion of Malicious Delight

London, 1885: Dr. Henry Jekyll longed to become someone else, if only for a short time. He devised a potion so wicked, that it would transform him into something completely unrecognizable, and would ultimately lead to his downfall. The moment you dig your spoon into this mysteriously transformative concoction, your taste buds are plunged into the unknown, and your own journey begins. The first taste of exotic fruitiness sends your mouth into a warm daze of tropical relaxation. Then, a wave of sinister spice stops you cold, in a mouth-numbing trance. Finally, an unexpected eruption of bubbly elixir galvanizes your mouth back to life. You slowly come to realize you’re not entirely sure where you’ve been, but you know you want to go back.

Essence of Ghost