Salt & Straw has opened its newest shop in Boston’s Seaport, bringing a lineup of flavors that ranges from a hometown-inspired Boston cream pie to a matcha ice cream studded with actual chocolate-covered insects. The Portland, Oregon-born chain now counts 58 shops nationwide, each built around a rotating menu designed to surprise as much as satisfy.
According to WCVB, Salt & Straw began in 2011 as a single ice cream cart in Portland before growing into the chain now scooping cones in Boston. The company keeps 15 permanent flavors on its menu alongside five rotating selections each month, giving regulars a reason to keep coming back. Salt & Straw develops those flavors through collaborations with chefs, farmers, and artisans, a process the company says keeps its menu evolving well beyond classic vanilla and chocolate.
A Menu Built on Local Flavor and Bold Swings
The Seaport shop’s lineup leans into New England pride with a Boston cream pie flavor and a pistachio cannoli packed with pieces of real pistachio, per the station’s report. There’s also a double-fold vanilla made with twice the amount of vanilla found in regular vanilla ice cream, and a strawberry honey balsamic with black pepper that uses an Italian technique of adding acidity to sweet fruit to intensify its sweetness.
But the flavor drawing the most double-takes is Creepy Crawler Critters, a sweet matcha ice cream featuring chocolate-covered insects and toffee brittle mealworms, the same report notes. Salt & Straw says on its product page that it partnered with Don Bugito, described as one of the nation’s first edible bug farms, to create the flavor, stirring in coconut toffee candied mealworms and chocolate-covered crickets.
“They Are Actual Critters”
Salt & Straw General Manager Prisca Mbiye confirmed there’s no trickery involved in the matcha scoop’s crunch. “They are actual critters,” Mbiye said, according to WCVB. Mbiye also said the company continuously pushes the boundaries of flavor, and called the Boston shop “a taste adventure.”…