ice cream

Here’s the Scoop!

July is National Ice Cream Month, and July 21 is National Ice Cream Day. Here’s the dish on everything ice cream in Palm Springs and beyond.

Kay Kudukis Current Digital, Restaurants

ice cream

Ice cream started its culinary journey somewhere between 618 and 97 B.C. with a Chinese guy named (no kidding) King Tang of Shang, according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). The ingredients sound a lot less delicious than the sweet treat we eat today: Buffalo milk, flour, and camphor. Tang seemed to be pretty passionate about the stuff though; he had 94 ice men on staff to make it.

A contradicting account from icecreamhistory.com claims it was the Persians who deserve credit because they poured fruit on snow and ate it. Any self-repsecting ice cream aficionado will tell you that is called a sno-cone.

The list of possible origins and contributions to the creation of ice cream has credits going to the Arabs, Marco Polo, Italy, a French wedding, and in some truly revisionist history, Martha Washington.

It was 1984 when President Ronald Regan gave ice cream its national recognition, and by the time 2017 rolled around, the sweet treat was contributing$11 billion to the U.S. economy.

Here's a list of places in the Coachella Valley to mark the occasion this month starting with one of the latest shops to open.

Holey Scoops, Palm Desert

A 2017 IDFA survey found that most ice cream shops are family owned and operated. One of the valley's newest places is a traditional parlour conceived and operated by the brother and sister team of Becca and Aaron Brukman.

Long Beach natives, they both attended the University of Arizona, Becca majoring in political science, and Aaron in business and marketing. Older, Becca graduated first and was hired in Washington, D.C. as deputy press secretary for Rep. Alan Lowenthal before taking a job as communications director for Rep. Dwight Evans. Aaron’s degree took him to the other Washington as an area operations manager, and then as an area manager for internet retail behemoth Amazon.

After finding success in both their chosen fields, they felt like they had “been there, done that”. The time was right to activate the big plan: owning a business together. Young and fun, they both had an interest in the food industry, and both loved the desert where they spent holidays as kids. It all came together: ice cream and Palm Desert.

Since December of last year, the friendly duo has been serving up classics like regular and sugar cones filled with any of their 12 different flavors, sundaes, banana splits, and housemade frozen bananas. Their fun side comes out in their specialties like the made-to-order, warm, cookie ice-cream sandwich; the thick, creamy milkshakes served in your own tropical floatie, and two decadent ice cream pies.

In honor of National Ice Cream Day, they are offering their first 20 customers a free Holey Scoops tote bag.

facebook.com/holeyscoops

holeyscoopsbeccabrukman

The magic of Holey Scoops is the brother-sister duo of Becca and Aaron Brukman.

Here are a few more delights to check out:

Ice Cream & Shop(pe), Palm Springs, icecreamandshop.com

Sabores Handcrafted Ice Cream, Coachella, 760-777-2917

Kreem, Palm Springs, ilovekreem.com

Nitroinfusions, La Quinta, nitroinfusions.com

La Michoacana, Cathedral City, lamichoacanaicecreamparlor.com

Lappert’s Palm Springs, lappertspalmsprings.com

Great Shakes, Palm Springs, greatshakes.com

Monster Shakes, Palm Springs, mostershakesps.com

Tutti Frutti, Palm Springs, 760-322-0101

Hielo Sno, Rancho Mirage, hielosno.business.site

Swirlyz Frozen Yogurt, Palm Desert 760-776-8787

Flavors, Palm Desert, 760-776-8898

Beach House Yogurt, Palm Desert, beachhouseyogurt.com