Interview With the Washington Company Making the Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

I discovered one of the best store-bought ice creams at Seattle Wine & Food Experience’s POP! Seafood & Bubbles food event this year, and it’s made right in Bellingham, WA. Acme Ice Cream was slinging scoops in tiny little cones, which naturally I had to try, because ice cream.

I was completely blown away by the texture and how deeply flavored it was. If you read my best ice cream shops in Seattle roundup, you know I have a thing for creamy ice cream. Well, this was creamy and had a subtle taffy-like pull as you removed the cone from your mouth.

I’d never had a texture like this before, so I was intrigued. I reached out to Acme Ice Cream and chatted with CEO Erin Fray to learn how this local Washington ice cream company with only about 20 employees is creating some of the best store-bought ice cream on the west coast.

Interview with the Best Store-Bought Ice Cream

How did the idea for Acme come about?

Erin: Acme came about because the founder had a vision of creating the experience of ice cream from the early days when the focus was on slow-churned ice cream. Over the years with commercial manufacturing, ice cream became more and more bloated with air. It became something all together different because it’s now sold by volume.

Pints and quarts are an antiquated English system of measure based on volume vs. weight. Pump it with air and you’re still getting the volume but depriving people of the full amount of product. It was about basically how can we return ice cream to it’s original integrity.

I was brought up to drive the company’s branding and growth. I’ve always been a foodie, even as a little girl. I went to Europe at a young age and when I tasted all that French cheese, it was over for me. I learned what can happen when you take a bite of something agricultural.

From there, food became one of my true threads in life and passion. I’ve worked over the years helping a bunch of different foods grow so that I can bring producers of excellent food to more people.

How long have you been making ice cream?

Erin: We’ve been around for about 6 or 7 years. We started small up in a small town near Bellingham called Acme. We eventually moved the plant over to Bellingham to be closer to commerce (editor’s note: their scoop shop is one of my must visits in this Bellingham guide). And we started just delivering door-to-door to local stores, but as demand and smiles increased, we’ve decided to take the next big step and roll out across the Pacific Northwest, beginning with Seattle area.

What makes your ice cream different?

Erin: We don’t add any air, which makes for a richer, thicker, and more visceral mouth feel. It also makes the ice cream’s taste profile more flavorful because there’s more taste in every bite when there’s no air.

More cream and no air gives you this bite that is so full of sensory delivery that you wonder why you’re eating anything else. If you’re going to indulge in a delicious bite, we chose to be the top-shelf choice because we believe in giving people the satisfaction they desire rather than something that may hit the sweet spot but not be as high quality.

Because we have no air, we weigh more. If you do a side-by-side comparison of other premium ice cream, we’ll weigh one pound and others likely won’t. That’s because everyone else uses pints as a measure, which is 16 fluid ounces. But we’re giving consumers 16 full ounces. We’re the only brand selling one pounders instead of pints. (Editor’s note: And this is why I think they’re the best store-bought ice cream!)

Also, because there’s no air, the ritual of how to engage with our ice cream is a bit different. You need to take it out of the freezer and have it sit on the counter for 5-10 min to let it soften, which is also known as tempering. If you try to eat it right away, it’ll be hard and difficult to scoop. Air is what makes ice cream soft immediately, so this is a sign that you’re getting an ultra premium ice cream.

So are you really making gelato?

Erin: No, there are different guidelines for what makes ice cream vs. a gelato. Gelato, while it has a more taffy-like texture and less air, it also has less cream. We’re making ice cream because we use more cream.

There’s a ladder ranking of different kinds of ice cream. It’s such a wide category. For example, Halo uses ice cream packaging, but they aren’t technically ice cream because they have more than 50% air in order to market to health-minded consumers.

We’re ultra premium because we go beyond premium guidelines, which still allow for like 20% air. We use no air because we believe that’s what really makes an ice cream premium.

How do you get that taffy-like consistency?

Erin: The taffy-like consistency happens because there’s no air. So instead of getting fluffiness, the cream and milk make it more solid so the ice cream can come into this big pull.

What’s your most popular flavors?

Erin: Mint chip, fudge brownie, and strawberry, but my favorites are espresso and butter pecan (editor’s note: MINE TOO).

Take me through how you make the best store-bought ice cream.

Erin: We mindfully choose to source ingredients from Whatcom county and wonderful fertile part of the world. Milk is sourced from dairies nearby and Whatcom county near Bellingham. This area is called the “berry basket of America” because more raspberries are grown for national consumption here than anywhere else in the US. We focus on sourcing from these local farmers so we can get the best products and improve their livelihood.

What are some of your biggest challenges to date?

Erin: The demand has been greater than our ability to produce. We’re opening a new facility in Bellingham so hopefully this will help, but there are less than 20 of us.

Another challenge is just general awareness of the ice cream. Consumers have a certain expectation of what ice cream tastes like, but many have not had the opportunity to taste a product like ours that is by far the richest, creamiest, and most flavor-intensive ice cream there is. No one else is producing this no-air ice cream. Once they try our ice cream, we have them at hello.

What are you most proud of in regards to your business?

Erin: I’m proud to have the opportunity to bring more local agriculture and dairy producers’ life work into our products. Being able to hire more people who are into making excellent products to put in people’s mouths…we’re trying to build a living northwest ecosystem. It’s a privilege to grow that.

Where can people find Acme Ice Cream?

Erin: We have 2 scoop shops in Bellingham, inside Rocket Doughnut stores. In Seattle we’re going to be available inside Eat Local. We’ll have scoop shops inside their stores and also have containers to take home. They have 3 stores and we’re in all 3 on Broadway, Queen Anne, and Burien. They’ll be opening 5 new stores in 2019. We partnered with them because they cater to people who really care about clean ingredients.

Town and Country will also start selling our products in stores soon (Editor’s note: They’re the local grocery chain that brings you Ballard Market, Central Market, etc.).

We’re also always partnering with local events and markets. For example, we’ll have a summer sampling blitz in the greater Seattle area. We’ll have darling ice cream carts on trikes at events like Seattle Magazine’s Brunch Run and Woodland Park Zoo Tunes.

What’s next for Acme Ice Cream?

Erin: We have a lot of idea, but it’s about prioritizing. We want to expand into more of the Pacific Northwest. We have a number of flavors that people adore in our back pocket that we’re looking to introduce. Right now we offer 8 flavors, but in the shop there is more. This will bring even more flavors to people.

What else should people know about the best store-bought ice cream?

Erin: We make the best ultra premium ice cream, but we also contribute to the social well-being of our community. We donate products or resources to organizations like the Woodland Park Zoo, Farestart, and homeless shelters. We have a number of charities we care about because at the end of the day, we’re all in this together.

Where do you tell visitors and locals alike to visit?

Erin: For food places, I love The Walrus and the Carpenter. I love Spinasse with their homemade pasta. It’s just a wonderful, quintessential northwest experience. Also, anything oyster like Chuckanut Drive and Taylor Shellfish Farms.

Sightseeing wise, I love going to the islands and taking ferries to see our beautiful landscape. People need to get on the water and up in the mountains to truly experience the Pacific Northwest.

[line]

Want to learn more about Acme Ice Cream and how they make the best store-bought ice cream? You can follow their adventures on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, or check out their website.

Want to learn more about other local makers? Check out my interviews, recipes and roundups of the best Pacific Northwest makers.

Disclaimer: This article is based on my own opinions. While I was provided free ice cream to try, I’d discovered them at a food event and reached out about partnering. This interview was my idea, as I think more people need to know about Acme Ice Cream!