Salt & Straw ice cream relaunches their Upcycled Foods Series for the second year in a row this April. Timed to Earth Month, this series features a pioneering menu that highlights a uniquely delicious solution to help reduce food waste through ice cream.
Available starting Friday, April 5th in scoop shops and via nationwide delivery, co-founder and head ice cream innovator Tyler Malek has partnered with five trailblazing brands that focus on reducing food waste in the US to create innovative flavors that rewrite the food waste narrative by using often wasted ingredients, such as whey from Greek yogurt production and overly-ripened bananas. Each flavor is officially Upcycled Certified®, awarded by the Upcycled Food Association (UFA).
In the past two years, this series has rescued over 40,000 pounds of food waste, which embodies Salt & Straw’s mission to reinvent the ice cream experience by using their brand as a platform for storytelling, with this menu specifically shining a light on food waste.
Flavors include:
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New Flavor – Chocolate Caramel Potato Chip Banana Bread: in collaboration with Urban Gleaners, the Portland-based nonprofit redistributing food from high-end restaurants and grocery stores to schools and agencies working to end hunger, rescued bananas are roasted in honey and spices to create a jammy banana bread ice cream, combined with chocolate-coated Uglies potato chips, made from potatoes with slight imperfections, and a rich handmade caramel ribbon.
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New Flavor – Passionfruit Yuzu Mochi Donuts & Whey Curd: in collaboration with The Spare Food Co., the culinary innovation company co-founded by socially conscious, sustainably-minded brothers, chef Adam Kaye (former Culinary Director at Blue Hill at Stone Barns) and Jeremy Kaye (formerly Patagonia, Nike), whose mission is to create food and beverage products that aim to fix the broken food system which views overlooked ingredients as food waste, versus what they really are: wasted food. The tart, tangy frozen yogurt is infused with The Spare Food Co.’s upcycled whey base, swirled with a passionfruit-spiked lemon curd, tossed with bits of butter mochi cake slathered in yuzu frosting.
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Returning Flavor – Salted Caramel & Chocolate Brownies (V): in collaboration with Renewal Mill, the Bay Area based upcycled food company that turns nutritious byproducts from food manufacturing into superfood ingredients and premium, plant-based desserts. Gooey chocolate brownies frosted with a vegan caramel and featuring okara flour, a flour made from the pulp leftover when making soy milk, are folded into an oat milk ice cream base.
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Returning Flavor – Malted Chocolate Barley Milk (V): in collaboration with EverGrain, a St. Louis, Missouri based sustainable ingredient business, the chocolate barley milk and candied fig ice cream is infused with malted barley milk made with EverPro, a nutrient-rich barley protein made from upcycled brewers spent grain (BSG) – a byproduct of the brewing process. This is also Salt & Straw’s first ever allergen-free ice cream that’s not a sorbet!
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Returning Flavor – Cacao Pulp & Chocolate Stracciatella Gelato: in collaboration with Blue Stripes, the cacao brand founded by famed chocolatier Oded Brenner, the cacao gelato, which is made using the whole pod including the shell and pulp, is striped with ribbons of melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate stracciatella.