Salt & Straw Scooping Up Boozy New Flavors for Summer

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

May 31, 2024

 

We are just past Memorial Day, and, like many families across the U.S., you may have already been breaking out the grill, the s’mores, and the summer treats.  Maybe you’ve also enjoyed two summer favs: ice cream, and cold beer.

At Disney Springs’ Salt & Straw location, they’ve managed to combine both of those things as part of this month’s specialty flavors.  The June “Brewers Series” is admittedly unique, and even somewhat difficult to combine, culinarily and physically speaking. It includes five new flavors infused with beer notes, ranging from tones of stouts, porters, and lagers to IPAs.

 

Salt & Straw arrived in Disney Springs in the spring of 2022.  While it is a “chain” of sorts, with more than 40 locations across the country (including Downtown Disney at Disneyland, and Disney Springs at Disney World), it is actually a successful family-run small business, started by Kim Malek and her cousin, Tyler. Salt & Straw offers hand-made small batch ice creams “created in collaboration with chefs, farmers, food movements, social causes and more.”  That’s really what Salt & Straw is known for: unique but hand-made ice creams with quality, and predominantly local, ingredients.

 
While there is a more familiar “classics” menu at each location, they do offer 36 different flavors across their shops. Yes, you can get vanilla, but why would you when there are so many unbelievable one-of-a-kind options like Panther Coffee Chocolate Tres Leches or honey lavender on menu? Salt & Straw is perhaps more widely known for their changing monthly selections. Each month features inventive, limited-time themed flavors. (October often has real “bug” ingredients during the Halloween “Scoops & Skulls” offerings!)

Back to June, though.  Salt & Straw says of their new series, “We're tapping five of the most amazing microbrewers in America for one incredible flight of delicious beer-based ice creams. From Seattle to Portland to Santa Rosa—and Miami to LA—these brewers keep their hometowns double-and triple-hopping with the best beers you've ever tasted.”

Among the five flavors in the Brewers Series are:

 

• Breakside Chocolate Barrel-Aged Stout

Salt & Straw’s 12th collaboration with Ben Edmunds at Portland's Breakside, is made with Portland's Breakside Barrel-Aged Stout.  Salt & Straw says, “We're steeping cocoa nibs in it for a couple days, then coating the nibs in chocolate, adding the leftover beer with cream and sugar, and swirling in rich tres leches cake with one of the leches replaced with, you guessed it, more stout. The chocolate malty taste gives you this triple intensity.”

   

• La Tropical's La Original Lager w/ Guava

This treat is made with Miami's La Tropical La Original Lager featuring Nugget, Idaho 7, Centennial and Amarillo Hops, with underlying notes of honey. “Originally born in Cuba 150 years ago, La Tropical's La Original Ambar Lager is being brewed again in Miami and we couldn't be prouder to be compadres,” says Salt & Straw. “The bready, graham-cracker-like profile of this amazing elixir took us on a flavor journey straight to the land of flan, where we followed the original, ancient recipe to create a sunny syrup capped with a succulent guava drizzle.”

• Métier's Black Stripe Porter & Bread Pudding

“Hitting a custom flavor homerun with Rodney Hines at last year's MLB All-Star game is just one of our happy collaborations with Seattle's Black-owned Métier,” reports Salt & Straw. “Next up: This celebration of his silky-smooth Black Stripe Coconut Porter and marvelous Marjorie's it's-outta-here bread pudding. After we cook the beer recipe into a rich, robust syrup and pour in a heavy splash of the porter, you slide home with little bites of crispy brioche toffee on top of gooey bread pudding. Grand slam.” 

• Monkish's Space Cookies & Cream Hazy IPA 

This triple-hopped LA beer ice cream gets its “iconic hazy profile from a sharp use of English yeast, and we dial it into focus with our own triple-hopping process—a little boiling, a little cold steeping, and a little steeping with Everclear. Pitch in a decent amount of beer with some fresh grapefruit zest and a swirl of 'nilla cookie butter.” 

• Russian River’s Supplication Ale w/ Manchego

Salt & Straw boasts, “In our humble beer nerd community, Russian River Brewing is considered the best brewery in the world. It seems impossible that we even got to work with them, let alone make frozen yogurt with this particular beer. Supplication Ale is aged 12 months with dried cherries in Pinot Noir barrels, and when it comes out—once a year—we chase the beer truck down the street. That's why we're so excited to blend the taste of Supplication into a really light fudge, swirl it with a touch of manchego cheese, and add a ribbon of marmalade made with those same tart cherries. It's fresh, tangy, and calm-tasting—all things considered—and that beer fudge is the star of the show.”

 

If you want to test out these new flavors before they disappear, current prices for a few of the goodies at Salt & Straw’s Disney Spring’s counter include: Single scoops ($7.25); Double scoops ($9.95); Kid’s scoops ($5.95); pints ($12.95); and milkshakes ($11.50). A variety of waffle cones and add-ons are available, too.  You can also order the Brewers Series (or other flavors) for home delivery at Salt & Straw’s website.

Salt & Straw is located on Disney Springs West Side, and is open Sunday-Thursday from 10 a.m.-11 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m.-11:30 p.m.

  
Catch a cup while you are waiting for the Disney Springs’ “Dreams that Soar” drone show this summer!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

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Fall Flavors at Salt & Straw at Disney Springs

 by Beth Keating

Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

October 3, 2023

 

Last week, we were at EPCOT for the opening of the four new booths (Global Marketplaces) at the 2023 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival.  Among the booths we tried was the new Swirled Showcase, housed in the former Starbucks kiosk at the entrance to World Showcase. If you read our review, you know we weren’t particularly impressed with our “Cream Soda Float with Vanilla Soft Serve” there. The soft serve was fine, but the drink was on the small size for the $6.25 price tag, and it was just your average ice cream soda – nothing particularly special.  We suggested people head back to the more impressive gelato varieties in the Italy and France pavilions instead.

If you’re looking for the fall vibe that the salted caramel and apple-cinnamon flavors were offering at Swirled Showcase, though, allow us to offer up another suggestion:  Head to Salt & Straw at Disney Springs West Side.

 

Salt & Straw has long been a favorite of ours, for the very high quality (and sometimes offbeat) ice creams served up at this small storefront.  Don’t expect just plain old vanilla and chocolate here, though.  The shop has what they call a “classics menu” that pretty consistently dishes up such selections as Double Fold Vanilla; Chocolate Gooey Brownie; Sea Salt with Caramel Ribbons; Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper; Arbequina Olive Oil; Panther Coffee Chocolate Tres Leches; Salted, Malted, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough; Cinnamon Snickerdoodle; Roasted Pineapple Coconut Sherbet; Honey Lavender; Peanut Butter Brittle Caramel Fudge; and Freckled Mint Chocolate Chip.  Do those sound like run-of-the-mill flavors to you?

But Salt & Straw also has an ever-changing limited edition section, too.  In September, they brought “The Harvest Festival Series.”  This is where you want to go to get your seasonal flavors fix!  The Harvest Festival Series included:

 
• Pumpkin Spiced Tiramisu, a spiced pumpkin cold brew ice cream sweetened with maple and ginger and cinnamon, and swirled with tiramisu cake and flecks of chocolate stracciatella, using a single origin chocolate from Ecuador (Wowza, that’s a good fall flavor!)

• Beecher's Cheese with Apple Pie Cinnamon Rolls, a white cheddar cheese ice cream with pieces of apple-filled cinnamon rolls and cinnamon swirls.

 

• Caramel Apple Sherbet, an apple juice sherbet with ribbons of vanilla bean.

 

• Pinot Poached Pear Sherbet, made from half pinot noir and spiced pear sherbet and half double fold vanilla.

• Chocolate Plum & Hazelnut Shortbread, a spiced plum coconut cream with pools of homemade plum marmalade and pieces of gluten free hazelnut and chocolate chip shortbread.

 

But the ice cream masters at Salt & Straw weren’t content with just one set of fall flavors.   This week, they’ll also be introducing the new “Scoops & Skulls Series” for Halloween and Día de los Muertos. And brace yourself for these scoops, because there will be real bugs involved!

The new Scoops & Skull flavors include:

• The Great Candycopia, a sugar-lovers dream come true, and Salt & Straw’s top-selling flavor of all time, with homemade Kit Kats, Snickers, Reeses, and Heath bars in a salted butterscotch ice cream.

  

• Jack o’ Lantern Pumpkin Bread, a returning fan favorite, made with pumpkin spice ice cream with bites of pumpkin bread and cream cheese frosting.

 

• Don Bugito’s Creepy Crawly Critters with (gasp!) Don Bugito’s crunchy chocolate crickets and toffee-brittle mealworms in green Matcha ice cream. Yes, indeedy, real bugs.

 

• Chocolate Champurrado with Sesame Toffee, a new flavor collaboration with recipe writer Paola Briseño-González for Día de los Muertos, honoring Mexico's rich cacao tradition.  It’s a spiced champurrado (Cloudforest chocolate drink thickened with masa) with shards of sesame seed palanqueta (traditional Mexican-style sesame toffee).

 

• Blackberry Tamales, a new vegan option, made from one-half masa coconut cream sherbet, and half juicy marionberry sherbet, served in tribute to Michoacán's tamal from the Purépecha region (also made in collaboration with recipe writer Paola Briseño-González).

 

So now that we’ve caught your attention with these delectable fall flavors, you can understand why we tell you to head there, instead of just settling for the fine-but-not-remarkable soft serve at Swirled Showcase. At Swirled Showcase, we paid $6.25 for a maybe 4 ½ inch high sampler cup. At Salt & Straw, you’ll get these vibrant fall flavors for just a few coins more…. as little as $7.25 for a single scoop.  Of course, you can upgrade to their full-size milk shake for $11.50.  Mix and match your scoops for a double scoop for $9.95.   (Plus, Salt & Straw encourages you to ask for a spoon-sized tester sample if you haven’t decided which flavor to commit to yet!)

 

Salt & Straw is a relative newcomer to Disney Springs, arriving in the spring of 2022.  While it has become a “chain” of sorts, it is actually a successful family-run small business, started by cousins Kim and Tyler, who now have more than three dozen locations around the country. The scoop shop offers hand-made small batch ice creams “created in collaboration with chefs, farmers, food movements, social causes and more.”   Among the rotating offerings have been  such fun creations as their “student inventors’ series,” with flavors named “The Adventurous Llamanaut,” (based on an astronaut llama); and “Rosie the Pink Flamingo,” each with its own backstory.  The changing selection of frozen sweets will surprise you with their inventiveness, but you can be sure each choice is full of bright, fresh ingredients.  

 

Go on, head over there, and taste some of the most intriguing flavors of fall!  If you are brave enough, try the bugs.  As for me, I’ll be sticking to the Jack o’Lantern Pumpkin Bread.

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

It’s National Donut Day… And Disney Doesn’t Shy Away

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

June 2, 2023

 

Disney is all about the Instagrammable delights, and more than a few selections feature over-the-top creations with donuts in the mix. (Cue the Beaches & Cream Soda Shop’s “double desserts” with a donut on top of a shake…Share with a friend, or suffer the consequences of a complete sugar crash later.) The Mickey Confetti Shake ($15.00) currently has a cupcake perched atop the shake, but often the menu has an offering with a donut crowning your souvenir cup.

 
While there are tons of circular yeasty treats throughout the parks, especially around holidays and celebrations, if you are at Disney World today for National Donut Day (June 2), here are a few special places to check out in order to get your sugar fix.

At Disney Springs, the obvious choice would be Everglazed Donuts & Cold Brew. It’s the spot you’ll find the more traditional but no less delicious classic glazed, vanilla iced, and sprinkle donuts ($4.75). A dozen donut holes will cost you $5.00, but if you want something a little more fun, Everglazed also has Fruity Pebbles, Purple Glazed Ube, and Mounds Coconut Dream varieties, among others, including the Brooklyn Blackout, a chocoholics dream. Really looking for a quirky lunch option? Try the Donut Burger ($13.00)!   

 

A less obvious choice at Disney Springs is the Salt & Straw ice cream shop, where you can sample The Salty Donut Guava + Cheese, a cream cheese flavored ice cream infused with chunks of glazed brioche donuts from the famed craft donut shoppe, The Salty Donut. Swirl in some Florida guava curd, and you have a unique treat.

Vivoli il Gelato in The Landing area at Disney Springs will fill your donut with a scoop of your favorite hand-crafted gelato and sauce. Just ask them for the Bombolato ($10.50), a warm Italian specialty.

 

If you are looking for a sweet indulgence that is vegan, gluten-free or kosher, head to Erin McKenna’s Bakery NYC,  also located in Disney Springs.  There you’ll find a selection of goodies, including bagels, cupcakes and cookies, with donuts priced around $5.95.

 

Joffrey’s Coffee locations are a quick stop to get a fast jolt of sugar alongside your hit of caffeine, and you’ll find them all over the parks, even at the Caribbean Beach Skyliner hub – we’ve snapped up a few oversized donuts there while on our way between stops. If you find yourself at the Joffrey’s at Blizzard Beach this summer, miniature versions of the donuts come in an order of either six for $4.89 or twelve for $9.29. For an additional $1.59, you can add on a cup of chocolate, raspberry or white chocolate dipping sauce to take you to a next level sugar-rush. Sadly, Blizzard Beach is still closed for its refurbishment right now so that won’t help you for National Donut Day.

 

Visiting Animal Kingdom and want something a little different?  Eight Spoon Café (which has great mac and cheese, by the way) offers an unusual pulled pork sandwich in a jelly donut ($6.99), sweet and savory at the same time.

 

At EPCOT?  We suggest a treat that is donut-adjacent, but oh-so-good!  In the France pavilion, tucked down a side path, is L’Artisan des Glaces, where you can obtain the handcrafted goodness known as “Croque Glacé” ($9.50), a scoop of your favorite artisanal ice cream pressed into a homemade warm brioche bun, meltingly bringing those flavors together. Absolutely delightful, though maybe not a “donut” in the purest sense of the word. 

 

If you find yourself on the west coast, Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes in Disneyland’s Downtown Disney is the place to be. They specialize in “crazy shakes,” with everything from slices of pie or cake, Rice Krispy Treats, brownies or ice cream sandwiches balanced on the top of the shake ($11.00-$24.00). Of interest for you today, though, is their seasonal offering, a vanilla shake with rainbow sprinkles, available through June 30. Too plain, you say?  Did I forget to mention there’s an entire rainbow donut on the frosted vanilla rim?  And it might be anchored by the gummy rope candy and unicorn pop that’s propping it up!  

 

If you find yourself in the newly remodeled area of Mickey’s Toontown in Disneyland, Daisy’s Goody-Goody Donuts ($5.99) at Café Daisy is a set of house-made mini-donuts covered in cinnamon sugar. 

 

Of course, if all you are looking for is your run-of-the-mill pastry donut, most of the resort food courts from the All-Star Movies to Everything POP Shopping & Dining at Pop Century have a colorful selection of the breakfast fuel for you for as little as $2.49. But where’s the fun in that? Go wild - National Donut Day only comes around once a year!

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

Two (Three?) New Restaurants Open at Disney World

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

April 24, 2022

 

Construction walls are beginning to come down around the parks, and in the past few days, several new dining venues have launched with soft openings, welcoming guests with interesting food and beverage offerings. Depending on how you count them, two (or maybe three?) new locations opened this past week.   

 

Over in EPCOT, caffeine-deprived park guests have been anxiously awaiting the reopening of the park’s Starbucks location.  In the World Celebration area of the former “Future World,” Disney has opened two sides to one gigantic, open and airy quick-serve restaurant.  On one side, Starbucks has made its latte-fueled return at the Connections Café.  The clean lines, soaring ceilings, bright wall-sized murals, large windows, and glass-fronted exhibit cases give this room a much more contemporary feel than its former occupant, the Electric Umbrella, with its ever-changing menu. 

 

If you enter through the opposite side of the building, however, you’ll be greeted with a different venue, the Connections Eatery, with such offerings as General Tso Chicken Salad ($11.49); a French Bistro Burger ($12.99), among several burger offerings; a miso-marinated Banh Mi Burger ($11.99); a hand-breaded chicken sandwich ($11.99), rumored to be prepared in a pickle brine for extra flavor; and several pizza options including a curry spice plant-based version ($10.99).  Kids can also opt for a Grilled Chicken Bao ($7.49), and there is an interesting looking Liege Waffle on the dessert menu ($5.29), made with brioche dough and berries. Shakes, beers, wines, and a Cucumber and Thai Basil Cooler ($14.00) are also available.

 

While the eatery began serving guests at its soft opening this week, the Disney website still listed the Connections pair as “Coming Soon!” as of the writing of this article. “Soon” means if you get over there quickly, you’ll beat the crowds that don’t know full opening is imminent! And incidentally, if you are in need of a charge for your phone, many of the tables and counter seats have charging stations available, making this locale especially attractive in the afternoons in the era of Disney Genie+, eating away at your battery power!

 

So, did the “Connections” pair count as one restaurant, or two?

 

The second, or third eatery, depending on how you counted the Connections “sisters,” is a much-anticipated East Coast version of the “Salt & Straw” ice cream parlor at Disneyland California’s Downtown Disney District.  Salt & Straw is a family-run small business, with nearly a dozen-and-a-half locations around the country. The newest Salt & Straw shop, at Disney Springs West Side, began scooping out their confections for guests this week, and offers up hand-made small batch ice creams “created in collaboration with chefs, farmers, food movements, social causes and more.”   

Current seasonal offerings include the five winners of the student inventors’ series, such as 12 year old Rae’s “Bottomless Limes!”; seven year old Asher’s “The Adventurous Llamanaut”; and six year old Charlotte’s “Rosie the Pink Flamingo” flavors.  (Each of the student flavors comes with its own backstory.  Gotta love the creativity, especially about the little llama who wants to be an astronaut and moonwalks!)  Prices range from $6.95 for a single scoop, to $14.75 for a four scoop “flight.”  Oh, and friendly shop attendants will be happy to give you a sample spoonful of a flavor you haven’t committed to yet. 

 

In addition to the changing selection of seasonal and student creations, the shop sells their “classic” flavors, though these aren’t the flavors you’ll find in your average freezer case.  Honey Lavender; Strawberry Honey Balsamic with Black Pepper; Chocolate Gooey Brownie; and Roasted Pineapple Coconut Sherbet are just a few of the main menu flavors.  Pints are also available in the shop’s freezer case. (And if you don’t live in nearby Florida, you can still sample the flavors by ordering your ice cream shipped from Salt & Straw’s website.)

 

Salt & Straw opens at 10 am, and is usually open until midnight most days. Conveniently located near the AMC Theatres, you can grab some ice cream before or after your movie night to make your evening complete.

 

Now, if Woody’s “Roundup Rodeo BBQ” would finally open…

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

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