Salt & Straw Embraces The Spooky Season With 'Scoops And Skulls' Ice Cream Series

Halloween is a great time for lovers of sweet treats already, and things are going to get sweeter still this year with Salt & Straw's new "Scoops and Skulls" ice cream series. The scoop shop is well-known for its extensive menu of creative and unique ice cream flavors, with year-round favorites like Arbequina Olive Oil and Honey Lavender joined by a rotating cast of new choices that changes monthly. And, of course, no chain that features seasonal items can ignore the spooky siren song of a Halloween menu, with all the fun flavors that entails. So, starting September 29 and running through October, Salt & Straw is launching its new menu with five flavors from co-founder and head ice cream innovator Tyler Malek.

Salt & Straw's "Scoops and Skulls" series is split between three returning favorites and two new creations, according to a press release sent to Tasting Table. The two new flavors, Chocolate Champurrado and Blackberry & Masa Tamale, have been made in partnership with Paola Briseño-González, a food writer who is also the leader of the Los Angeles Día de los Muertos festival, the largest of its kind in the country. Per the press release, "Her collaboration with Salt & Straw is meant to shed a new light on the culinary traditions of Día de los Muertos, incorporating seasonal flavors and preparations found at old school Mexican celebrations."

Kicking off Salt & Straw's new menu is the Chocolate Champurrado, based on a masa-thickened cacao drink, and studded with chunks of traditional Mexican-style sesame toffee. The Blackberry & Masa Tamale Sherbet is a vegan combination of masa coconut cream sherbet and marionberry sherbet inspired by the Purépecha region. The three returning flavors include one of Salt & Straw's most unique creations, Don Bugito's Creepy Crawly Critters, which is made with real bugs by pairing matcha ice cream with toffee-brittle mealworms and crunchy chocolate crickets. Rounding out the menu are The Great Candycopia, which mixes house-made candy based on Halloween favorites like Kit Kat and Reeses into salted butterscotch ice cream, and Jack o' Lantern Pumpkin Bread, a combination of pumpkin spice ice cream, fresh pumpkin bread, whipped cream cheese frosting, and a pinch of warming spices.

While all that sounds enticing enough, there's a nice little bonus for kids too. On Halloween day, anyone under 16 who comes to a location in costume will receive a free scoop of ice cream. While the rest of us will have to pay, Salt & Straw's "Scoops and Skulls" lineup should still offer plenty of reasons for a trip to your local shop this October.