Four of Toronto’s Most Instagrammable & Unique Ice Cream Shops
It’s officially summer, so why not treat your followers to something sweet to look at?
By Jessica Alex
Looking for content ideas for your small business? Want to show your followers a fun side, and that your posts are not all business? Well, with today being the first official day of summer (finally!), I thought to come up with a list of some of Toronto’s most Instagrammable ice cream joints. After all, who doesn’t like a good ice cream photo, and who says you can’t have an awesome, mouth-watering photo on your page that your followers are going to love? And as a bonus, you get to actually eat it!
So why post about ice cream? For starters, it’s summer, and ice cream, in general, is pretty popular on Instagram. In fact, currently there are over 35 million posts with the hashtag #icecream alone. Secondly, and probably most importantly, once again, you get to eat it! So why not kill two birds with one stone this summer — figuratively speaking of course, we are animal lovers over here.
And if by chance posting ice cream on a random hot day isn’t your thing, there are plenty of ice-cream-related holidays for you to jump on this summer. Some of which include:
July 1 - Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day (US)
July 21 - National Ice Cream Day (3rd Sunday in July) (US)
July 23 - National Vanilla Ice Cream Day (US)
August 2 - National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (US)
September 22 - National Ice Cream Cone Day (US)
(Oh, and July is national ice cream month in the United States, but who says we Canadians can’t jump in on the fun?)
As you can see, there are a lot of days for you to choose from to trendjack your way into some fun engagement.
Now, if you’re not sure where to go to get Instagrammable (and tasty) ice cream in Toronto, no fear, I’ve got you covered. Here are four different ice cream shops that you just might want to check out this summer:
Booyah Inc.
16 Vaughan Rd, Toronto, ON M6G 2N1
Here are a few things to note:
Their most Instagrammable dessert is the ice cream taco. It comes with a chocolate dipped and sprinkled waffle shell, 3 scoops of ice cream, your choice of whipped cream, chocolate or caramel sauce and 2 toppings (for instance, crushed Oreos, sprinkles, etc.).
However, their most popular dessert is their ice cream cookie sandwich. The half sandwich is 1 cookie and 2 scoops of ice cream, $4.95 plus tax. The whole sandwich is 2 cookies and 4 scoops of ice cream. Their vegan versions are $5.80 plus tax.
Speaking of vegan, they rotate their vegan soft-serve flavours every week (lemon, grapefruit, and dark chocolate, to name a few). The soft serve image above is their passion fruit flavour. The soft-serve is $3.80 plus tax. They also have other vegan options, which include vegan cookies, ice cream sandwiches, palettas, and cones.
Another really popular dessert is their sweet pocket. It is a choice between a sweet or cinnamon brioche bun, which is then covered in Nutella, marshmallow fluff, or both, and a giant scoop of ice cream. The dessert is then heated and sealed in a specialized machine, keeping the bun hot but the ice cream cool and creamy. Their sweet pocket is $6 plus tax.
Booyah offers customization on everything, so you can get creative with your selection!
Cauldron Ice Cream
502 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5V 2B3
Cauldron Ice Cream, which has several locations in California, is a handcrafted ice creamery that offers what they call the “Puffle” cone, which comes in several flavours, including original, churro, and red velvet.
But besides their Puffle cone and liquid nitrogen-made, all-natural ice creams, they are probably best known for their gorgeous and creative rose design (pictured above), which they offer at no extra charge.
A few things you should know:
The Puffle cone is $7.99, but if you are more of a traditionalist, they do also have sugar cones ($6.99 for 1 scoop, $7.99 for 2 scoops and $9.99 for 4 scoops) and cups ($5.99 for 1 scoop, $6.99 for 2 scoops and $8.99 for 4 scoops).
You can also customize your own toppings. And they, too, have a vegan option, the “Pineapple Express” (pictured above).
iHalo Krunch
831 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M6J 1G1
iHalo Krunch is most likely known for their black cone, which gets its colour from activated charcoal, and is made fresh in-house.
They offer a variety of solid flavours, such as Ube All The Way (their purple ice cream), which is made with a dehydrated Dioscorea alata (also known as purple yam or ube) extract, Black on Black (their black/charcoal ice cream), a coconut charcoal ice cream made with activated charcoal, Meet Your Matcha (their green ice cream), a Japanese green tea ice cream, and Bean There, Done That, a Madagascar vanilla bean ice cream.
It’s $6.50 for a cone, but you can also opt for a cup instead, which is $6. They also give free kiddie cups to children 6 years old and under.
Their most popular ice cream flavour is their signature flavour Ubenut, a twist of Ube All The Way and Black on Black. Another twist is Matchabean, a twist of Bean There, Done That and Meet Your Matcha. Besides doing a twist, you also have the option to stack flavours, creating your own combinations.
Their vegan/dairy-free option is made with a coconut base at their flagship location, 831 Queen St W, and the flavour options are seasonal.
Eva's Original Chimneys
Multiple locations
What started off as a food truck has now become a premier ice cream shop, with three brick and mortar locations, two food trucks, and two pop ups (including one at the CNE) in the Greater Toronto Area.
They offer the ability to customize your cone and toppings, and their price range is $5.50 – $9.95, depending on size and which options you choose. Their cones are unique, in that their chimney cones are a sweet risen dough, which also happens to be 100% vegan, baked fresh and not deep fried.
They offer several vegan options as well, so there’s plenty to choose from.
The key to take away from this is to have fun this summer, and don’t be afraid to experiment with your content marketing. If you are going the ice cream route, share your post or story with me @jessicaalexmarketing — I want to see what you got!
Note: Prices and flavours are subject to change. See the location for more details. Thank you to all the above ice cream shops for providing photos and their pricing.
