REVIEW: New Ice Cream Shop, Much More than Chocolate, Vanilla

By Rachel Stober 

If you seek non-conventional ice cream flavors, Tin Pot Creamery might be the place for you.

Apparently, "that’s why they make chocolate and vanilla" didn’t suffice as an answer for the owner of Town and Country’s (T&C) new ice cream store, which offers flavors like Earl Grey Tea and Lavender with Blueberry Swirl.

That's why, adding to T&C’s upscale take on life, former Facebook pastry chef Becky Sunseri recently co-founded and opened Tin Pot Creamery, a charming, wholesome and thoroughly delicious artisanal ice cream shop.

Tin Pot held there official grand opening on Sunday, Aug. 4 at T&C.

In contrast to the Coldstone Creamery’s monstrous portions and do-it-yourself mentality, the shopping center’s second ice cream store tempts customers to try its own adventurous takes on traditional flavors in small handcrafted batches.

Making everything from the cones and toppings to the ice cream itself on site with locally grown, organic ingredients, Tin Pot Creamery is clearly the brainchild of true ice cream artisans. 

Indeed, the shop’s blog says that it was created out of "a love for all things ice cream," which must be true since Sunseri—a midwesterner—ate ice cream in the midst of winter "while sitting on the heater."

Years later, her passion continues.

Sunseri met her partner while working as a pastry chef at Facebook, and together they started an ice cream delivery service that evolved into the brick-and-mortar shop they opened Summer 2013.

On the corner adjacent to CVS, Tin Pot Creamery’s glass exterior, industrial metal and chalk-written menu blends concepts of a laboratory (Sunseri does in fact have a degree in nutritional science from Cornell University) with the type of cute, old-fashioned mom-and-pop look one would expect from place that calls its ice cream "artisanal." However, after the carefully tailored taste bud experience that is a scoop of the creamery’s product, one can understand why they call it a craft.

Offering nine consistent flavors and nine which will rotate, Tin Pot’s menu will surely grab your attention.

But it’s not just novelty for its shock value; these daring flavors all taste incredibly faithful to the ingredients from which they were made, and truly taste just as, if not more, delicious than traditional flavors.

If you’re going to spend the equivalent of a small meal on ice cream, skip the boring flavors like chocolate or vanilla. Even if you know what you want to order, sample a few things first. After all, when else will you get to try lavender ice cream?

The only way to describe the creamery’s newest flavor, Lavender with Blueberry Swirl, is that it tastes like the smell, in the best way possible. Sweet and light, yet not fruity or tart, this ice cream would hold its own even if it wasn’t for its unique origins.

The Vegan Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk has a smooth consistency and a dominant peanut flavor that tastes right out of the jar. Unlike the chocolate chunks in most store-bought ice cream, these ones will melt in your mouth so fast you would think they were also made of ice cream.

The Earl Grey Tea is one of the sweeter choices, as is the Sweet Cream with Honey Balsamic Swirl, creamy and smooth yet strongly spiked with the unmistakable tang of balsamic.

Chocolate lovers can’t miss the Rich Chocolate with TCHO Shards, which lives up to the title of "rich chocolate." TCHO (pronounced “choh”) is "obsessively good chocolate" from San Francisco based on the pure flavors of cacao, and will satisfy even the wildest of chocolate cravings.

The Cinnamon Snickerdoodle stands out as a true piece of craftsmanship, with a kick of spice and a grainy texture that embodies the cookie without including any chunks.

Four Barrel Coffee with Coco Nib Toffee, however, is the flavor I dare you not to like. Decadently creamy yet sprinkled with surprisingly crunchy specks of toffee, don’t try this flavor if you aren’t a barefoot person, because it will knock your socks off.

Warning: once you start eating, it may be hard to stop. All of these flavors taste even better on one of Tin Pot’s sweet, crispy, wafer-like homemade cones. Customers can also choose from fresh baked goods or make their ice cream into a sundae.

Looking at the menu, it may first appear that $3.50 for a single scoop ($4 for two scoops, $5.50 for three and a dollar extra for a cone) is overpriced. But the uniqueness, process, flavor, ingredients and copious amounts of thought and love in their ice cream makes Tin Pot Creamery worth every cent.