Mais oui. When on vacay, it's okay to, uh, indulge! Unlike Scream, this place served real ice cream and not exclusively dairy free sorbet (although the did have sorbet). Poor Bert's GI tract. There are two locations of Tara's Organic Ice Cream - this is the one in Berkeley (the other is in Oakland next to Burma Superstar, which will be a few posts away).
Again, one of those bouji/"organic" (seen obviously in the name) places which scream "I'm so environmentally conscious" and "I am holier than thou because I only eat organic and no artificial blah blah and would never set foot in Baskin Robbins' where the peons eat normal ice cream" and "let's see what wierd flavors we can come up with that people are willing to pay $3 a scoop" for!!!
Lest you think I'm bagging on this place, I'm actually not. I can't help being sarcastic (well actually I can but I choose not to) most of the time. I have resigned myself to the fact that if you want to taste quality ingredients in a quality product, you are bound to pay more. You get what you pay for in most cases. This type of ice cream was one of those places. But whether I liked my flavors or not remains to be seen...
Of course, my anal tendencies had me searching for the various eateries/ice cream/dessert places all over the city weeks before our trip. Logging in those places on our Garmin was not only a tedious and necessary task, but one that gave me personal satisfaction knowing ahead of time where all these places were. I hate being unprepared, but then I have been known to "roll with it" (.00001% of the time).
Here are their offerings (cones, sundaes, ice cream sandwiches, and even cakes). And I lied. A scoop CAN be under $3 but only if you have the appetite of a hummingbird.
Their flavors of the day...hmmm, I don't know about Epazote or Garam Masala as ice cream flavors.
Hey, I tried me some o' that Pink Peppercorn but it reminded me too much of the Szechuan Strawberry flavor I had at Humphry Slocombe last Fall. I tried another flavor (forgot which) but ended up choosing the Rosemary Pear with the Orange Cashew.
TC saw the "Mint Chip" sign but not the "Lavender" underneath it. Well, THAT was an "interesting" flavor pairing that she did NOT appreciate. To be honest, neither did we. It tasted too floral and made me feel as I was licking a bar of soap. Lovely, eh? Not.
We were able to have two flavors with one scoop, so score for that. Just like at Mariposa's on Adam's.
At 7 o'clock - TC's Mint Chip with Edamame Lemon ice cream.At 12 noon was my Rosemary Pear with Orange Cashew. At 5 o'clock was Bert's Black Sesame and Peanut Butter. Of all the flavors we had, I liked Bert's the best. I've had black sesame (elsewhere) before and this had a lot of good sesame flavor. Like pistachio (which they didn't have here), Bert cannot seem to pass up anything mocha or peanut butter. At least his flavor choices were palatable. The rosemary in my pear was too overpowering. Waaaay overpowering. I felt like I needed to douse this ice cream with tomato sauce and fennel to make it complete.
TC's second flavor would have been better without the edamame beans. They had a wierd chewy mouthfeel. I didn't like it. The one major cloying thing about TOIC was the heavy "cream" taste to the ice cream base. I know it's real and "organic" and shit, but it was way too thick tasting for me. Very rich and creamy which should be a good thing, right? But, it was kind of bland underneath all those weird flavor combinations...
TC and I ended up not finishing our ice creams. They melted a bit fast since it was hot near the window where we sat. The place was constantly busy so that's a good thing for their business. The girl working the counter was super nice and accomodating when letting us try the different samples. I mean, there are so many to choose from! The savory and sweet pairings might appeal to some folks, but for me, it really depends on the flavors. I'm pretty adventurous but some should definitely not be combined like Lavender and Mint Chip for one or Pear with Rosemary.
Graffiti'd truck seen on the same street...
An interesting burrito special at a nearby liquor tore. If we weren't full from ice cream, I might have just picked up one of these! Hell, even two! Did you see that sweet deal?
Down the street was a cute produce market...
I bought some fresh blueberries for our breakfast tomorrow...
Gorgeous orchids that were being sold at the same market...
Isn't this lady slipper amazing?
So between Scream and Tara's, I liked Scream's flavors more. For the variety, Tara's definitely had that going on. There was a more energetic vibe at Tara's than at Scream which was more subdued. Of the flavors, Bert's won as the most palatable while TC and I suffered our choices. It's not to say we didn't like Tara's but maybe if we chose other flavors, we might have liked it more. The quality of both places were about equal - you can tell the product is much more superior than Baskin Robbin's or Thrifty's (Rite Aid) ice cream. But sometimes, for nostalgia's sake, you gotta have that Chocolate Malted Crunch!
Now before I end this post with a related video, I didn't want you to suffer through the Neely's visit to Tara's Organic Ice Cream, so here is a Neely-free video that's a lot shorter:
Reviews for this location:
Berkeleyside
SF Dessert Examiner
yelp
Official site
Up next, a few more places to check out before winding down at the hotel...
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