Hot weather = Ice cream

San Francisco has unpredictable weather. Last week’s weather was rainy and gloomy while this week is sunny, humid and hot. During the rainy season, I usually imagine myself sitting near the fireplace, drinking a hot cup of chocolate and listening to raindrops. On the other hand, during sunny days I usually go to my favorite ice cream parlor, order my favorite ice cream and try to avoid any contact with sunlight. One of my favorite ice cream parlors is located near the Castro. If you guys are familiar with the Castro and Mission, you have probably been to Bi-rite Ice Creamery. Bi-rite Ice Creamery is located at 3692 18^th St. San Francisco and near Dolores Park. There were two shops side-by-side — an ice cream shop, and a smaller soft-serve shop a few doors steps down. There isn’t a seating room inside, but they also have benches outside. Bi-rite is a family operated business and is known for their great, unique, fresh and tasty ice creams.  For those who haven’t been to this place, let me introduce you and to guide you through why this ice creamery is different from others not only for their ice creams but also for the ingredients they use.

Can you imagine an important ingredient in your ice cream comes from 45 miles away? Bi-rite is the first ice cream shop in San Francisco to use Straus Family Creamery organic dairy and organic ingredients. They make the most intensely and flavorful ice cream possible. According to them, they felt ice cream needs to be tasty and full of flavors. Sometimes other ice creams don’t taste enough of whatever it is supposed to be. For instance, vanilla is to blunt or chocolate is not so chocolaty. However, Bi-rite ice creams don’t have any artificial products or stabilizers and it tastes so yummy. Stabilizers are an important component in making an ice cream; it helps hold the air bubble structure together and give the ice cream a better texture. Furthermore, I don’t know if you have noticed some ice cream that is bought from the super market taste different from an actual homemade ice cream without any preservatives. This is because they make the ice cream from scratch and use only fresh organic ingredients. They also bake brownies, ice cream cake and other kinds of cookies or pastries everyday and serve it fresh, but their ice creams are more popular. Here are some good examples of their unique ice cream and the ingredients.  

I wanted to start with their coffee toffee ice cream; it is made of real coffee from Ritual Coffee Roasters. Their honey lavender is created with organic dried lavender and honey harvested from their Sonoma farms and sometimes their own rooftop hives. Also, their rocky road is made with house made marshmallows and house made chocolate-covered almonds and their Roasted Banana is created by roasting organic bananas with brown sugar until tender and caramelized. In addition, Balsamic Strawberry is one of the most popular flavors in the ice creamery and made from fresh strawberries. However, this flavor is available for only a limited time. They usually make it around spring and summer. In addition, Bi-rite supports their local neighborhood store and local farmers. They buy their local strawberries in the local market during spring and summer. Their concord grape popsicles are made from grapes grown on their own farm in Sonoma. Also, during the winter season holiday flavors are available such as - Earl Grey, Eggnog, Peppermint Stick and Orange Cardamom. Thinking about these ice cream flavors, I finally decided to take a break and headed to Bi-rite ice creamery. 

While waiting in line, I was thinking of getting the salted caramel or the roasted banana. So I ended up getting both flavors. Salted caramel sounded sketchy because the flavor contradicts with each other but I totally love it. It melts in your mouth and is very delicious. The ice cream is not to sweet or salty. The two ingredients complement each other. The roasted banana is also good but salted caramel is my favorite. The single scoop is around $3.25 and the sundaes are around $6. Don’t get intimidated by the long lines the servers are fast, friendly and very helpful. You can also ask for small samples to try other flavors. Trust me it is worth to wait in line. They also sell ice creams in half a pint, or pint where you can take it home and enjoy with friends and family. If you like to cool down in this hot weather, I highly recommend this place. This place has changed my perspective on ice cream and I hope you try it soon!