Coolhaus - Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel - Maldon Sea Salt and Caramel Ice Cream

Today we return to the Culver City based Coolhaus brand for their implementation of a Salted Caramel flavor.  It looks like a simple implementation, just sea salt and caramel.  They build it as "Maldon Sea Salt".  Maldon is a town in Essex on the river Blackwater which is known for salt production.  For those who are more interested, here is a long, flowery treatise on Maldon salt.

Remember that Coolhaus is the ice cream brand that is "architecturally inspired" which means that each flavor has an architect associated with it.  This flavor is nicknamed "Cara-Mia Lehrer" after Mia Lehrer, the Los Angeles based architect.  Lehrer is primarily known as a landscape architect.  She has worked on a number of projects in the LA area including the Silver lake reservoir, the San Pedro waterfront and the gardens of the Museum of Natural History.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows the expected brown color of the salted caramel base.  The first spoonful is soft, very creamy and full of caramel flavor.  It is not that salty.  In fact, if you just told me that it was caramel, I would not have noticed.  That is fine with me.  Some people like a kick of saltiness in their salted caramel that leaves them thirsty afterwards.  This is not that, but it is still good caramel flavor.  Sometimes a salted caramel base tastes a bit too much like a Slo Poke sucker but this manages to avoid that.  It is softer and creamier than other salted caramel bases that I've had.

For simple, plain salted caramel bases, this is one of the best that I have had.  That said, the base is all that is here. There are no mix-ins in this pint.  My preference for salted caramel is as a gooey mix-in but if you like it in the base, this is the one to get.  As good as this ice cream is, I want to mix it with something.  Interestingly, the Coolhaus brand is arguably more known for their ice cream sandwiches than for their ice cream alone.  In their sandwich line, they couple their Salted Caramel flavor with Snickerdoodle cookies.  That sounds pretty good.