Protein ice cream? We got the scoop on Berkeley’s newest sweet spot
The Epicurious Garden in North Berkeley is like a Harry Potter alleyway. An unassuming archway against a brick building opens up into a hallway of restaurants and businesses selling sushi, brunch, Tibetan trinkets and the latest addition, healthy ice cream at the new Serotonin Scoops (https://serotoninscoops.com/).
Epicurious Garden, 1511 Shattuck Ave. C, Berkeley; serotoninscoops.com (https://serotoninscoops.com/)
Hours: Daily, noon to 9 p.m.
At the end of the hall and behind a pane of glass is a rainbow. Perhaps the most striking is the tub of bright yellow saffron pistachio ice cream, which has an aromatic and floral flavor.
Developing a healthy ice cream that is close to the traditional dessert is something that many have tried, but few have mastered. The evidence is in the Berkeley Bowl freezer section. But the three founders, Jay Desai, Ray Niak and Rohit Singh wanted to be different from the pints that remain picked over at the store and make a product that could stand alongside the “real” ice cream brands.
It all started during the pandemic when Desai had nothing to do but eat ice cream. He had previously been diagnosed with diabetes, but never did anything to control it. His doctor told him, “you better stop.”
Enter Niak, a microbiologist and friend of Desai. Desai came up with a challenge for Niak – to develop an ice cream that would satisfy his itch but not spike his blood sugar.
“We say that we have formulated the world’s best ice cream,” Desai said.
Since then, for two years, the pair has been developing an ice cream that is as sweet and creamy as Häagen-Dazs with fewer calories and much less sugar.
Finding a sweetener was the first step. They settled on allulose, a naturally occurring sugar that has fewer calories than sucrose (the kind that is found in table sugar) and a monk fruit sweetener which is derived from a dried fruit grown in South East Asia.
But, they didn’t want to just develop a low-sugar ice cream. They wanted an ice cream that could actually be healthy. Serotonin Scoops’s ice cream has five added fibers, whey protein and prebiotics.
“Whatever I make, I have to be comfortable enough to feed my daughter,” Niak said.
The five fibers are fructooligosaccharide powder (a plant based prebiotic), prebiotic inulin, acacia fiber, soluble corn fiber and resistant dextrin.
“When people eat ice cream, it’s called a guilty pleasure. There’s nothing guilty about this,” Desai said.
While Serotonin sells the traditional ice cream flavors such as chocolate, vanilla and strawberry, when it came to developing other flavors, Desai drew inspiration from India, where his family is from. Niak, who is from Iran, wanted to incorporate flavors common in the Middle East, but difficult to come across in the United States, especially if you are looking for a healthier alternative.
“Our flavors are inspired by some international flavors,” Desai said. Some shops in Iran only sell one flavor, he said, saffron and pistachio, known as Akbar Mashti after the first man to open an ice cream shop in Iran. “That is their go to ice cream.” As an homage to a popular Indian street snack, they are experimenting with their coconut mango flavor topped with chili power for an extra zingy taste.
The ice cream is produced in a facility in Marina, near Monterey. Desai said they chose Berkeley for their flashship because it is the epicenter of the food movement. With Peet’s up the street, Chez Panisse a couple doors down and Cheese Board directly across the street, this block of North Berkeley is known for pioneering flavors.
And like Peet’s, they are hoping to expand from this point out. “We want to spread out. Maybe down the road. We want to cover the whole Bay Area, and then we want to go further,” co-founder Singh, who also owns Breads of India and Homemade Cafe, said.
When you walk up to the counter and read the sizes, you might think you were ordering up your next psychedelic experience. “The Microdose,” Serotonin’s term for a single scoop, costs $5.95, “The Balanced Dose,” two scoops, costs $8.95 and “The Megadose,” three scoops, costs $11.95. Customers can also buy ice cream by the pint for $12.99.
The staff is eager for customers to try the flavors and will offer samples right when you come in. The honeycomb, which had a rich honey flavor, and coconut mango, which tasted like a milkier version of a perfectly ripe fruit, are not to miss at Serotonin Scoops. For people who are lactose intolerant or are searching for non-dairy options, they have two flavors, chocolate and vanilla, which use soy milk instead and are just as creamy.
As a lover of ice cream and a skeptic of my favorite treats being marketed as healthy, I was pleasantly surprised by Serotonin Scoops. The scoops are creamy and dense (which Desai attributes to the no added air that other brands will mix in), and the ice cream is sweet without the overpowering aftertaste some alternative sweeteners have.
Some people, as I was, are suspicious of healthy ice cream. On an Instagram post (https://www.instagram.com/p/DYOAd84EQyG/?utmsource=igwebcopylink&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==) announcing Serotonin Scoops’s opening, two commenters replied that they were excited for a new ice cream shop to open, but were disappointed that it was going to be healthy.
“welcome to the north berkeley neighborhood! we are so glad to have you! we would greatly, greatly appreciate if you served actual ice cream instead of HealthSlop!” commented one user.
To skeptics, Desai, Niak and Singh are asking that they come see for themselves how their ice cream compares.
“When they say, ‘Oh my god, there is no sugar in this,’” Desai said, “I feel like a million bucks.”
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