Tartine Manufactory Blood orange sorbet and cardamom soft serve: Tartine Manufactory closes its bakery section, including soft serve, for dinner service, but if you ask nicely, they will serve it (as I found out last night). This swirl of blood orange and cardamom was one of the best things I ate all year, with potently spiced cardamom and sharp citrus. The texture was smooth and consistent. Often, independent flavors in swirled soft serve compete and don’t quite work in harmony, but this unexpected combination was both balanced and even better with one a... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Uji Time Tofu Soft Serve: This flavor has eluded me for several months. I sampled the tofu the first time I ever came to this Japanese ice cream shop in Berkeley and loved it but opted for the classic black sesame for my first cup. Ever subsequent time I went back to Uji, the tofu was sold out. Finally, a few months ago, I was able to get it, but this time, the texture had degraded a bit, with the soft serve being uncharacteristically icy. Still, the soy milk flavor is excellent and easily identifiable to anyone ... (read more) 3.0/5.0
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Pineapple Express Pineapple soft serve: Right in the middle of the ultra-touristy (and, thus, overly-stressful) Chelsea Market is a little oasis in the form of Pineapple Express, a stand/hut wrapped in bamboo sticks and straw trim, decorated with hanging pineapple-shaped Christmas lights. Here, they serve a variety of tropical treats, from fresh coconut juice to full-on ice cream sundaes. The price tag is still entirely Chelsea Market (get ready to dish out $7 for Dole Whip), or you can opt for the minuscule soft serve cone, bar... (read more) 4.5/5.0
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Uji Lavender soft serve in Taiyaki cone: The best lavender ice cream I've ever had was in Hokkaido, Japan at Farm Tomita, where their lush, seemingly endless fields of lavender are the basis for wondrously floral and creamy soft serve. I have yet to find anything that comes close, but the seasonal lavender flavor at Uji, a Japanese ice cream shop in Berkeley, is a strong contender. The trick is their careful balance - the lavender does not overpower (which otherwise would lead to a mouthful of perfume-flavored cream), yet the flav... (read more) 4.5/5.0
exceptional uji lavender soft serve in taiyaki cone 4.5 ujitime
Dominique Ansel Kitchen What-a-melon watermelon soft serve: Dominique Ansel celebrates the start of summer with a special watermelon soft serve, served in a fresh watermelon "taco" topped with thin seed-shaped chocolate. We braved the line of Instagram fanatics for 20 minutes in advance of the soft serve window opening at 11am at the West Village Dominique Ansel Kitchen. Admittedly, it's as photogenic as any Ansel dessert, with a mountainous swirl of glistening orange-pink sorbet. The soft serve itself had a concentrated melon flavor and great textu... (read more) 4.0/5.0
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Cascadian Farms Oats & Chicolate soft baked squares: What do you get when you get a Chips Ahoy cookie, make it square and 1.5x as thick, use organic ingredients, and soften the texture to make it more crumbly? These Cascadian Farms oats and chocolate soft baked squares. They really do taste like Chips Ahoy. 2.5/5.0
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