People always say Alaskans eat the most ice cream per-capita
I should've got two!
Sometimes on these summer days it sure seems like it,
with long lines of people loving to try this alaskan ice cream.
My name is Elissa Brown, I'm one of the owners and founders of Wild Scoops.
We're a craft ice cream company located in Anchorage Alaska.
So, I've always loved tinkering around in the kitchen, but I never thought I'd do it as a career.
But then one day at the library I stumbled upon this ice cream cookbook.
And for some reason it really spoke to me.
The first ice cream that I made that really blew my mind was a basil Ice cream.
Something that we usually haven't had in ice cream. And when I tried it...
It was, familiar yet surprising at the same time.
It just showed me that you can put anything in ice cream.
But then, when I moved to Alaska...
I saw that there really wasn't any local ice cream being made, they way I envisioned that it could be done.
And this seemed like such an opportunity.
That may of 2015, we started selling at the south Anchorage Farmer's Market.
Right from the start, we received a really warm reception.
And we took off running from there.
When you walk in the door, it's the start of the experience.
Intoxicating waffle cone batter, and the waffle cone being rolled on the spot.
That sets the scene too, it's like your first smell impression.
You start eating with your eyes as you see the colors in the case.
And then the experience continues as you interact with your server, ask lots of questions, try lots of samples.
Choose your flavors, get your scoop.
Then you get your first taste of ice cream, but at the point you've had so much of an experience leading up to it...
You take it with you as you remember the whole journey of the ice cream.
We make all of our ice cream ourselves. We really have flavors that shine with a sense of Alaska.
The bakes Alaska cone is a decadent experience.
A homemade waffle cone that we make entirely from scratch and roll on site.
Then we take this homemade marshmallow fluff and we pipe it on top, like a beautiful mountain.
And we torch it on on the spot!
It's like, performance art.
Our first year, we would go around the farmers market that we sold at...
And make it a challenge to see if we can do a collaboration with every single vendor.
We got the beets and the pumkins, the really small amount of strawberries and the rhubarb.
Using chaga concentrate from the mushroom foragers.
I've always considered ice cream part of the larger community ecosystem.
So it's like, how can we connect with every entity in town?
We'll host school groups in our kitchen to take tours, to nonprofits, to other small businesses.
And small business is really unique, you wear lots of hats, and it's just, a small business getting by.
It's fun to be able to work with others ones of those.
It's also neat to work with other people who are so passionate about what they do.
To ask questions about the product that they're making.
Ask them questions about what they think it might pair well with in ice cream.
It's this celebration of makers and growers, making a final product.
No matter what you look like, or who you voted for, you can walk in the door and feel really welcome, and feel like you belong.
What matters is that you love ice cream, and you love the idea that it's made here by us, by Alaskans.
With a sense of love and a sense of pride in our surroundings.
Because at the end of the day, it's ice cream and everyone loves ice cream!
It's a way to celebrate accomplishments, to cheer up after getting a shot at the doctors office.
Or if something sad happens ice cream will make it better.
We definitely believe that more than ice cream, we're scooping up a bit of happiness...
Making people's days a little bit better, one scoop at a time.