Creating unusual, well-balanced, and tasty ice cream has long been the goal of Sweet Action owners Gerry Kim and Josh Gertzen, and now that spring has sprung, the couple debuts three new flavors. Enter strawberry-rhubarb pie, coconut cake with pineapple curd, and the star of the show, Cadbury Cream Egg. Yes, the latter indeed features real Cadbury Cream Eggs.
“The hardest part is unwrapping and cracking all those eggs,” said Kim as she dished a sample of the creamy delight.
To save poor fingers from too much processing of the 61-year-old Easter candy, the ice cream also contains luscious chocolate fondant swirled in. The result features a cool treat with layers of thin chocolate and plenty of childhood glee. This ice cream falls into the company’s “junk” line, which showcases flavors make with candy, chips, and other ingredients in the junk food category.
On the opposite side, the strawberry-rhubarb pie flavor tastes tart and sweet, with perfectly flaky bits of crust woven throughout. The trick to this type of ice cream, which the shop files in the “baked” category, is the fresh pie crust. Sweet Action’s coconut cake with pineapple curd also makes it into the baked section, one of around nine different collections.
Though some ice cream makers use pre-made pastry, Kim and Gertzen make sure most additions to their ice creams are hand-crafted, especially the baked goods. They even have a dedicated chef on staff who makes sure the cookies, brownies, and cakes remain supple in the ice cream. Witness this in the final spring special. Here, a light coconut cake blends with the sweet cream to create a fluffy concoction with subtle sweet swirls of silky pineapple curd. This flavor, like the other two, stands out on its own as both unique and delicious.
Spring features aside, Sweet Action has utilized whole ingredients and chef-made pastries in the recipes since opening in 2009. The Baker shop was touted as bringing artisan ice cream to Denver. It offered a range of fun, off-the-wall flavors to boot. Kim and Gertzen took over the independent shop at the beginning of 2020.
The pair owned Frozen Matter, which opened in 2016 and also showcased unconventional ice creams. Today, the Uptown original Frozen Matter has shifted to the Sweet Action brand. The company has a total of four brick-and-mortar shops, an ice cream factory, and makes one-up flavors for a variety of restaurants in town. Fans can even find Sweet Action in some grocery stores.
Combining the original recipe book with all the ice cream innovation Kim and Gertzen have done, Sweet Action boasts over 1,000 flavors from savory to fruity to booze-forward. Of course only a handful of those are available at any given time, around 16 flavors per parlor. Currently, aside from the spring line, the menu offers blood orange sorbet, salted butterscotch, espresso brownie, mimosa sherbert, and more.
While many of the flavors change, Sweet Action does have around six staples always available. For example, French chocolate, Madagascar vanilla bean, and mint chip. However, don’t be surprised by the latter’s natural white color, in general the company doesn’t add dyes, preservatives, or any other unnecessary ingredients.
Aside from fresh, whole, and sometimes unconventional additions, another aspect to the ice cream comes through in how it’s made. The whole operation, from the factory to the lights in the parlors, run on wind energy. In fact, Sweet Action is one of Xcel Energy’s first Windsource commercial customers. In line with this dedication to the environment, Sweet Action uses compostable packaging in the shops. It also recycles everything it can.
Between the the push for sustainability, sourcing local ingredients, using whole foods, and the over all ice cream innovation, Sweet Action is high on our list of sweet shops. Get the spring flavors now and taste the frozen magic of a true Colorado institution.
Visit Sweet Action at one of the four shops, hours very. Find the closest one to you and more information at sweetaction.com.
