It’s hard to imagine a day better spent than one visiting three different homemade ice cream places, eating booza (an Arabic style of ice cream), Thai-style hand-rolled ice cream and a spicy goat cheese based ice cream in Tampa, amongst many others. Here’s part three, the conclusion, of my thrilling ice cream adventure in the Tampa, Florida area. (Missed part 1 and 2? You can start it here.)
After a large portion of ice cream at Handcraft followed by a smaller portion at Dough, I didn’t have too much of an appetite left. But I knew this would be the last visit of the day – Tampa has lots of traffic, and we still had more than an hour’s drive home ahead of us, so my aspirations of visiting a fourth or fifth place wouldn’t be met today.
My priority for our last stop was a visit to The Revolution. Their flavor combinations are pretty off the wall, with tons of mix-ins, and they reminded me a little bit of Ben & Jerry’s in their style. Being gluten-free, I knew I wouldn’t have a lot of flavor options to choose from, but I thought it would still be worth the effort to see what such a creative place’s ice cream was like.
Inside shot of The Revolution Ice Cream Co. courtesy of In Search of a Scoop
#3 The Revolution Ice Cream Co., Tampa, FL
As soon as we showed up, I had a great feeling about this place. We were pleasantly surprised to find designated parking at this and all of the ice cream places we visited (yay Tampa!) and although it was nighttime, the cuteness was clear. It seemed like a fun college hangout, casual but with great ice cream.
I only had a few flavors to choose from, being gluten-free, so I tried the two I was eyeing and then put in my order. Ross was too full for ice cream, but when he tried mine, he had to grab some too! Here’s what we got – and if you go here, please tell me how Callie’s Hotcakes are. Buttered pancake with maple syrup sounds out of this world!
The Seaward – Salted caramel, coffee, cinnamon and cardamom – This is sweet and almost spicy with its flavor combination. It’s really fun! The bit of spice meant that I didn’t get bored of it – it’s a little bit like chai. I really enjoyed it. I think one scoop was probably plenty for me, but if you enjoy a more subtle and refreshing scoop, get a couple!
The One That Started It All – Goat cheese habanero ice cream with raspberry ribbon – Oh my word. This tastes like cheesecake, and then goat cheese, and then the amazing habanero heat. It’s absolutely an outstanding combination of flavors. It’s not extraordinarily creamy (still plenty good enough though, and not icy at all in its texture) but the flavor is what makes this a total winner. This was the highlight of my night! It’s not for the faint of heart, and you might want some milk or water (or a plainer flavor like The Seaward to alternate with it) for when the heat gets intense. I will be dreaming about this flavor for years. It’s that good. I’d totally drive to Tampa just for this.
Prices are very reasonable here. I went with two scoops for $5, and it was an excellent portion. You can also get one scoop for 3.25 (like my husband did) or a kids scoop for 2.25, and 3 scoops is a great deal for only $6. They’ve also got some crazy sundaes, milkshakes, a sampler and a really intense Anarchy Challenge I wish I could try. (They say you’ve got 30 minutes to eat 6 pounds of awesomeness.)
I highly recommend joining The Revolution.
If you’re looking for other Florida ice cream reviews, you might enjoy my recommendations in Gainesville, Ample Hills at the Boardwalk at Walt Disney World (no park ticket required), Kelly’s in Orlando and a write up of all my Disney ice cream adventures including my favorite place for mint chocolate chip, L’Artisan des Glaces in Epcot. (Fuller article on the latter to come!)
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In Search of a Scoop 