Tipsy Scoop

There is a brand new ice cream "barlour" in Kips Bay serving up boozy ice cream, and it's creating quite a buzz.  Tipsy Scoop started out making ice cream for wholesale and catering, and now you can purchase their alcoholic treats by the scoop at their just opened brick and mortar location.  When I was there Tipsy Scoop had only been open a week, but word has clearly gotten out.  I rely on rainy days to beat the rush at popular ice cream parlors, but on this soggy day, the place was packed to the pint!  I guess customers are more likely to brave the rain when they all have to be 21+ to enter.

While I was taking this picture, someone headed in asked me if I was even 21.  Greg responded with "are you?"

Bird's eye view of the crowd courtesy of special guest Brianna.

We squeezed in the door and waited a long time in a very slowly moving line.  The menu board indicated that three flavors, including the Chocolate Stout Pretzel that I had been looking forward to trying, were sold out.  No problem there, I still had a hard time narrowing down my choices, as so many of the flavors sounded delicious.  I decided to order a flight so that I could sample four.  When I got to the counter, I was told I couldn't get a flight, because they were just too labor intensive to make.  "But I see other people with them, they look beautiful, I was really looking forward to one." I tell them.  Nope, too much work.  Instead they will serve two scoops in two cups each.  The good news is that they only charged me for a 2 scoop ice cream, which is less than their flight.  The bad news is that while we were eating, I saw another beautiful flight walk by me.  What's that about? Good to know I'm not worth the effort.

Here is a picture of a flight from the Tipsy Scoop Twitter page.

This is what I was served.  You can understand my disappointment.

What I got: Boozy "Flight" - Tequila Mexican "Hot" Chocolate, Spiked Hazelnut Coffee, Spiked Mint Chocolate Chip, and Raspberry Limoncello Sorbet

What Greg got: Sandwich - chocolate chip cookies with Spiked Hazelnut Coffee Ice Cream

What special guest Brianna got: Spiked Mint Chocolate Chip and  Dark Chocolate Whiskey Salted Caramel in a cup

Please note: All of the listed flavors have real booze in them and contain up to 5% ABV.  The menu says that they do have non-alcoholic ice cream available.  We didn't ask.  The menu also says that sprinkles and cherries are complimentary.  I didn't notice that until we were already eating, and the servers didn't offer.

Everyone's favorite was the Tequila Mexican "Hot" Chocolate.  The flavor was spot on.  You can taste the tequila and a little bit of spice, but neither are overpowering.  As delightful as the flavor was, the ice cream itself was super melty (the one on the right in the above picture) and that made it goopy and difficult to eat.  I didn't want to rush my eating to prevent making a mess; I wanted to enjoy it! The Raspberry Limoncello Sorbet was also very enjoyable.  It would be a perfect summer backyard party cool down treat, if anyone in NYC had a backyard.  The flavors were balanced, the booze was present but again, not overwhelming, and it felt good to eat.

The other flavors were all underwhelming.  The Spiked Mint Chocolate Chip had a very mild mint flavor and I couldn't taste the booze, let alone tell you what it was.  The Spiked Hazelnut Coffee clearly wanted to evoke the flavor of Baileys, but again was very mild; neither the hazelnut nor coffee flavors particularly had a chance to shine.  As for the Dark Chocolate Whiskey Salted Caramel, the first two elements were definitely there.  You could taste the chocolate and the whiskey, and it was quite good.  The salted caramel was, however, completely lost.  If they had left that out of the description, this would be a perfectly fine flavor.  As it is, if you think you are getting salted caramel and you can't find it, that can be disappointing.

Greg biting into his ice cream sandwich brilliantly photobombed by Brianna

Greg's ice cream sandwich also didn't measure up, and that I mean literally.  It was a very small treat, for a not very small treat price.  The cookie-to-ice cream ration was way off... too much cookie and and not enough cream.  Or maybe it was not enough cookie and really not enough cream (did I mention it was small?).  The cookies were hard, which lends itself to shattering while eating, which as anyone who has eaten an ice cream sandwich knows, just means a mess.

All and all, I don't think I will be heading back to Tipsy Scoop.  While some of the flavors were quite enjoyable, there was a bit too much disappointment in this ice cream adventure, and I just don't like being made to feel that I am a second class ice cream consumer.

The Rundown:
Where: Tipsy Scoop
217 East 26th Street
New York, NY 10010
http://www.tipsyscoop.com/
What they're known for: Alcoholic Ice Cream
A single cup: $4.50
Most Extreme Menu Item: Cake $75 (takes 5 days)
Non-ice cream menu options: Coffee (iced or hot) and bagged toppings