“If you are having a bad day and want to make it better, have ice cream,” counsels Tara Esperanza. “If you are having a good day and you want to top it off, have ice cream.” We couldn’t agree more. Tara began making ice cream a decade ago in Santa Fe and set up shop in the East Bay a few years later. The organization goes out of its way to reduce its carbon footprint, and Tara says her interest in doing so motivated the move to the Bay Area. Tara’s Organic Ice Cream is hand crafted in small batches using the purest organic fruits from local farms. No emulsifiers or stabilizers are added. Fresh herbs and freshly ground spices for each batch create surprising and irresistible flavors. Tara holds back on the sugar to let the flavors come through. And what flavors! She’s created 165 in all, some for limited seasonal runs: beet balsamic, goat cheese blueberry, nasturtium, sunflower seed butter, plus a lot of more familiar combinations that benefit from her touch.
“We’re about honoring the flavor and not the sweetness,” she says. Tara operates three shops in the East Bay, but you don’t have to cross the Bay to sample her flavors. We keep a selection of Tara’s Organic Ice Cream on hand for immediate, take-home delight.
