Local Vendor Focus: Lick Honest Ice Cream
In celebration of National Ice Cream Month in July, we are proud to focus on local and delicious Lick Honest Ice Cream.
Wheatsville’s South Lamar location is just down the street from Lick’s storefront so Packaged Manager, Niki Nash, and I travelled by scooter to drop by and say hello to Lick co-founder Anthony Sobotik.
After providing us with perfectly creamy ice cream samples, Anthony answered some of our questions, the first being: Why is Lick ice cream so dang good?
Anthony says it starts with the fresh milk and cream from Mill King Creamery in McGregor, Texas. Never homogenized and pasteurized at lower than usual temperatures, Mill King products have been highly prized at Wheatsville for several years. Anthony and his partner Chad Palmatier have an excellent relationship with the Mill King farmers—they process the milk that will become Lick Ice Cream directly on the farm and they have an exclusive agreement that ensures only Lick Ice Cream enjoys that benefit.
The other reason Lick Ice Cream has had much critical acclaim, including a recent nod in The Thrillist’s 21 Best Ice Cream Shops in America, is flavor. Anthony’s culinary background and South Texas upbringing inspire him to seek out true, fresh flavors regardless of whether or not they are traditionally found in ice cream such as the extremely popular Roasted Beets & Fresh Mint. Some of the flavors that have been a slam dunk from day one are the Dark Chocolate with Olive Oil & Sea Salt, made with Texas Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Hill Country Honey and Vanilla featuring Austin Honey Company Honey.
There’s a fine seasonal selection rotating in and out every three months or so depending on what is fresh and in season. When we visited, the highlighted flavor was Dewberry Corn Cobbler, pairing fresh, juicy dewberries and sweet Texas corn. Anthony admitted that some flavors take time to develop and can’t be rushed, such as his dream of a fresh cantaloupe ice cream— when the time is right it will happen.
There’s a fair amount of collaboration with local businesses to develop the flavors such as Great Bean Chocolate, Johnson’s Backyard Garden Produce, Pure Luck Goat Cheese and Texas Coffee Traders. These are all beloved Wheatsville vendors as well, making Lick Ice Cream pints a natural fit in the frozen aisle. For the non-dairy ice cream lovers out there, vegan options are available at the Lick shop but they are unable to provide pints of it at this time.
Since he’s an ice cream expert, we asked Anthony for some summertime dessert ideas:
• Lick Dark Chocolate Sea Salt Ice Cream scoops on warm Bourbon Pecan pie from Tiny Pies.
• Lick Pecans & Cream Ice Cream with hot peach cobbler made with Texas Peaches.
• Lick Cilantro Lime Ice Cream is light and refreshing on its own!