Tyler Malek

“Some lavender ice creams feature the flower’s brilliant purple color and a mere whiff of its bouquet—ours wallops you with it. For lavender lovers, this is bliss,” says Tyler Malek, Co-Founder and Head Ice Cream Innovator at Salt & Straw, an ice cream shop known for its inventive flavors. Here, bliss comes courtesy of steeping French lavender petals in local honey for hours on low heat. The ice cream base is kept at around 17 percent butterfat and 30 percent air, a ratio just shy of churning butter. “That fat carries flavor in ways that are hard to explain but really blow up on your taste buds,” says Malek.

Malek admits that lavender can be a divisive flavor, but credits its success at Salt & Straw to the steeping technique, which is unique in the industry. “Instead of imbuing the soapy qualities of lavender oil, we get more of the gentle tea-like qualities of the lavender petals,” says Malek, characterizing the flavor as a mix of intensely sweet background notes from the honey and gentle, almost black licorice notes from the lavender petals. “There are many who would argue that this is the best ice cream in the world,” he says