In LA’s perfect weather, can there be a more ideal food than ice cream?

And yet, somehow LA seems like it’s light years behind the East Coast’s ice cream scene. Few dare to open artisanal ice creameries, and those that do rarely innovate. Instead, we’re left with an overload of massive chains like Cold Stone’s, which, sadly enough, has been my go-to stop for years—and even then, more for the mix-ins than for the quality of the ice cream.

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I was more than a little curious, then, when I heard about Scoops, a small family-run ice creamery. It has never expanded, yet it has somehow managed to capture the loyalty of countless fans, who swear by its unique flavors, like brown bread, pistachio and triple sec, and vanilla and salt. Never in all my travels across the nation have I heard anyone even attempt such combinations. My answer to LA’s dearth of quality ice cream had finally arrived.

So I headed over to Scoops, located literally in the middle of nowhere, sandwiched between the freeway and the city’s far trendier areas (think Melrose and Sunset). Arriving at what looked more like a miniature shack than an ice creamery, I stepped inside to a very small, quaint mom-and-pop shop with some bright photos and drawings (the variety made by school kids, not pros), but little else.

I immediately ordered a large, expecting to try a couple flavors. To my surprise, though, the shop offered me 6 different flavors—and all for $5.75! Less than a buck a scoop, the cheapest I’ve seen anywhere.

Even with six scoops and only about sixteen or so different flavors in the shop, though, I struggled making my selection. Almost every flavor is unique, usually mixing two different ingredients that traditionally don’t go together. Just a few examples include pistachio and triple sec, white chocolate and green tea, and wine and caramel.  Each flavor is strong by itself, but by combining two flavors, every ice cream is able to achieve a bold contrast that takes your taste buds for a ride, as you try to decipher and distinguish the different flavors. I was intrigued, to say the least.

I finally made my selection and dived right into the shop’s two specialties, vanilla & salt and brown bread. The first left my mouth puckering from the intense kick of salt, which made the intense vanilla stand out all the more. The brown bread, in contrast, felt like munching down some crunchy toast with a bit of caramel and salt, yet the crumbled bits of bread blended seamlessly into the ice cream.

My favorite flavor by far, though, was the pistachio and triple sec, which not only infused pistachio into the ice cream itself, but added in fresh pistachio chunks for an even more intense nutty flavor. It then balanced out that nuttiness and the ice cream’s sweetness with a bit of alcohol bitterness. Nearly perfect, as with the vanilla and salt.

More remarkable, though, was that, out of six different flavors, I enjoyed every single one and would easily recommend five of the six. That type of consistency has to do with Scoops’ approach to ice cream. As with the pistachio and triple sec, Scoops tends to use a two-pronged approach to flavor, using both mix-ins and infusing the ingredients into the ice cream itself. That means every single flavor actually tastes like the ingredients it’s meant to represent. On the texture side, Scoops creates something between gelato and actual ice cream, as the ice cream has the lightness and flavor of gelato but retains the heavier, fattier ice cream taste. The result: Intense smoothness, richness, and flavor.

And, finally, the selction. I mentioned that the shop features only about sixteen flavors on a daily basis. Yet not only are these flavors almost surely unique to the shop, they change very frequently, as the owner constantly experiments. If you’re lucky, he might even turn your own suggestions into reality, as he allows customer to submit ideas for new flavors in his selection box. It’s not really a question of whether another shop has more flavors, then, so much as what types of flavors you want to try—and trust me, once you try these, it’s hard to go back to the “classic,” cliché flavors of the past.

Remember, too, $5.75 for a bowl of 6 scoops—and I mean the gigantic variety, not measly Baskin Robbins-esque scoops! Never have I run into another ice creamery where $5.75 gets you enough ice cream for at least 2 people.

Let’s recap: The ice cream at Scoops combines bold flavor, phenomenal texture, some of the most unique flavors on the market, and $6 for 6 scoops. How can you go wrong with any one of those individually, let alone in combination?

All you ice cream nuts out there, take heed: Scoops is LA’s definitive ice creamery, no questions asked.

What I Tasted

1. Mascarpone Oreo: Tons of oreo is packed in, meaning tons of cookie crunch and a great contrast to the creaminess of the ice cream. The mascarpone, however, is downplayed—I can’t taste it very much at all. But the ice cream is still excellent—smooth, perfectly integrated the oreo. It’s just a bit flavorless for a mascarpone ice cream. 3.8/5.0
2. Vanilla Salt: Phenomenal combo. I think the salt is actually table salt, which strikes me as very odd, but I like the salt chosen because it does have an edge to it, really hitting the palate hard. But it’s amazing how well it works, enhancing the sweetness by contrasting with it so strongly. The salt also gives a nice thirst/pucker feel that I find oddly satisfying. Moreover, the vanilla is right on—not overly sweet and very intense. The ice cream itself has the consistency of a soft serve, which I think really works with vanilla flavors well. 4.8+/5.0. Very unique, very simple, and very intense.
3. Green Tea, White Chocolate: Very odd. The flavor is definitely in here. In fact, the ice cream has a great herbal tea smokiness to it, making you feel as though you’re breathing in the fumes of green tea. It’s a bit on the bitter side, too, like real tea leaves. That bitter, leaf taste really kicks in during the aftertaste. The big complaint, however, is that I just don’t taste the white chocolate at all, except for a very slight white chocolate sweetness that hits you in the beginning. That flavor would really help take the edges off the intense bitterness, so it’s a shame that it’s missing. 4.2/5.0. Tea lovers will love this.
4. Pistachio, triple sec:   Amazing! I love pistachio, and this for me perfectly captures that taste. As stated above, the flavors tend to both infuse the ingredient into the cream, as well as mix in chunks of it, and this flavor is the perfect example of that. I especially like that not only are tons of nut chunks mixed in for that very fresh, real pistachio taste, those chunks are all cut very small, so that the crunch doesn’t interfere with the smoothness of the ice cream, as it often does in many other pistachio-flavored ice creams. As for the liquor, I think triple sec adds a very slight wetness and an alcohol bitterness that really contrasts with the sugar and nuts. Surprisingly, the liquor is very balanced, not overpowering the sweetness or the nuttiness in any way. 4.9/5.0. Perfect texture, tons of nuts, and actually a balanced use of liquor—you’d be hard pressed to beat this pistachio.
5. Chocolate Raspberry—Very nice balance. Neither side dominates. Moreover, the chocolate is semi-dark or a dark milk, so it has a slight intense cocoa bitterness that I feel the fruitiness really helps to balance (in addition to the loads of sugar in the ice cream). The texture is also remarkable, verging on that of a rich mousse.4.6/5.0
6. Brown Bread (ice cream with bits of brown bread mixed in and caramel drizzled on the top)—A bit like the mascarpone oreo in how downplayed the creamy ice cream is, but this fares a bit better because of just how good the chunks of brown bread are, as they approximate a crunchy toast. And the bites of brown bread are mini-sized again, so they mix into the ice cream seamlessly. Finally, I like the bit of salt I taste on the palate, along with the caramel that accompanies the bread. 4.0/5.0

Scores

Texture: 4.8/5.0
Taste: 4.5/5.0. With the right flavors, more of a 4.8.
Flavor (How well integrated flavors are): 4.6+/5.0
Selection: 4.2+/5.0
Value: 5.0/5.0
Verdict: 4.6+/5.0

Fosselman’s Ice Cream
$2.50-$4.50 for 1-3 scoops

1824 West Main Street
Alhambra, CA 91801-1897

My absolute favorite dessert is ice cream. Unfortunately, though, Los Angeles isn’t the best place to find great ice cream, at least in my experience. So it’s really a treat when you find a special ice cream place like Fosselman’s in Alhambra. Fosselman’s claim to fame is its special ingredient, butterfat. Unlike most traditional ice cream, Fosselman’s ice cream has a 16% butterfat content which gives it a texture and taste unlike any you’ll taste anywhere else.

In general, the texture is fantastic, as the ice cream is so rich and so creamy due to the high butterfat content that it is almost impossible for it not to be good. This is about the smoothest, creamiest traditional American-style ice cream that you can imagine. At the same time, though, beware, because that can also be its greatest weakness, too, since the 16% butterfat gives the ice cream an incredibly buttery overtone that can be very dissatisfying to some. When I took my father and brother to Fosselman’s, for example, they could not even finish their simple vanilla ice cream because it tasted so cloyingly rich to them. I, in contrast, took advantage of the situation to almost immediately scoop up all the extra ice cream (Hey, one man’s loss is another man’s gain, right?). I’m inclined to say that, judging by the popularity of the place, most will be more like me, but this ice cream is still very much a hit or miss affair, and if you’re not fond of buttery  flavors, you should probably avoid it.

The one weak link to note is in the flavors. First, there’s quite a large selection of about 30 flavors and 8 sherbets, but that still pales in comparison to some other places. Moreover, most of the flavors are very traditional, with only a few that really break from what you would find in a typical ice cream parlor, though there are some oddities on the menu at times (like Taro). Finally, the flavors aren’t always perfect, especially since the buttery flavor of the ice cream may actually mask or conflict with the flavors. Still, in general the flavors do come through, and Fosselman’s is fond of using actual chunks of fruits, nuts, and chocolate in its ice cream.

In conclusion, then, Fosselman’s may not be ideal for all, but it’s one of the best American-style ice creams I’ve had in my life. Rich, creamy, and FATTY.

Some flavors I’ve had:

1. Vanilla: This is the traditional American flavor, and boy does Fosselman’s get it right. At first, the vanilla flavor seemed a bit weak, largely because the creamy milkiness seemed to cover it up. But as you savor it, you really see it pop out, and it suits the rich, butter flavor of the ice cream especially well. 4.5/5.0
2. Strawberry: I’m not a big strawberry fan, but even so, this was a bit of a downer in comparison to the other flavors, largely because it has a weird, tangy, strawberry aftertaste. Still, the flavor is bold, and strawberry chunks are even included in the ice cream. I just don’t know how think the fruity tanginess really suits the extreme richness of the ice cream so well. 2.0/5.0
3. Dutch Chocolate: This was actually quite good for chocolate, though the flavor could have been stronger. It just seemed that, especially in comparison to the pistachio and strawberry, the chocolate flavor was a bit weaker. For the chocolatiness that it did have, though, this was an especially rich, smooth, and still quite flavorful chocolate. 3.5/5.0
4. Pistachio: This is the good stuff, and hands down the best flavor I tried today. It has the same great richness of the other flavors, but the pistachio really adds a new dimension. It’s well-integrated into the ice cream, too, and there are even some pistachio pieces in there which make for a really nice nut crunch. Fantastic. 4.5/5.0

Taste/Flavor: 4.1/5.0
Texture: 4.5/5.0
Selection/Variety: 3.0/5.0
Overall Score: 4.1/5.0