PROVO — The last stop on our Wasatch Front Ice Cream Tour took us to Roll With It Creamery in downtown Provo.
The shop claims to be the only shop in Utah to offer Thai rolled ice cream, a frozen treat trend out of Southeast Asia that has swept across the United States recently, according to Forbes.
Roll With It is satisfying and trendy, but it’s watching the employees make the product is perhaps the real treat.
It starts with the liquid base flavor of your choice — the choices the day I went in were vanilla, chocolate, mango and orange — that is poured onto a metal plate that is cooled to -15 degrees, according to Roll With It’s website. As the liquid starts to solidify, the mixins are dumped on top, kneaded into the base and chopped into small bits and blended using two ice cream spades. Once the base reaches the consistency of ice cream, it is spread out into a thin layer on the cold surface and scraped off, creating ice cream that rolls along the way.
We gave Roll With It Creamery a 2.5 out of 4 scoops.
It’s fascinating to watch the process, but if there’s even a small line at the shop, prepare yourself to wait in line for a while as it is not an especially quick process.
According to the employees, the flavors and mixins change frequently, which creates a different experience each time you visit but also means they don’t have a most popular flavor. Each order is includes one base flavor, one mixin and as many toppings as you want. Mixin options the day I went in went were Oreo, Heath, cranberry white chocolate chip cookie, rocky road, Captain Crunch, raspberry cheesecake and salted caramel pretzel, and the toppings ranged from whipped cream to sprinkles to honey.
One of the employees suggested a combination of vanilla salted caramel pretzel with Nutella, and for variety, I also ordered mango with raspberry cheesecake.
Both flavors were good, but the vanilla salted caramel pretzel with Nutella was by far the best. It was creamy with a great balance of sweet and salty as the mixins and toppings were plentiful and incorporated throughout.
The mango base was light and tart but as a sorbet was not as thick and turned out a little runny. None of the mixins available that day seemed particularly well-suited to be mixed into the mango, but the raspberry cheesecake turned out to be quite good, despite the fact that you couldn’t really taste the cheesecake.
There is only one size available for a flat price of $5.50, and the portion size wasn’t too large or too small.
The experience screams trendy, which can be both good and bad — good because the product is enjoyable, but bad because sometimes a simple, quick scoop of ice cream is all you want.
Location: 63 E. Center Street, Provo
Price: Only one size offered for $5.50
Scoop score: 2.5 scoops out of 4