Carmela Ice Cream

On Tuesday, my mom & I decided to explore the area and took our adventure off the beaten track of the freeway; driving from Burbank to Arcadia on the surface streets.  The adventure was a little long, taking over an hour with a slight detour when I missed a turn. On the way though we saw tons of cute areas and new neighborhoods. If we didn't have a destination in mind, we probably would've stopped at several interesting eateries on the way.  But the first stop in our mission was Din Tai Fung Dumpling House and it didn't disappoint.

After lunch we explored the Arboretum for over two hours. It was perfectly blooming and while there were other people there we didn't feel like the area was swarming with them because the park is so big.  The peacocks sure are loud though!

Arcadia was very hot today! After our long walk in the park we headed over to Carmela Ice Cream.  I was familiar with Carmela from when they appeared in a shiny silver truck at the Burbank Farmer's Market a few times.  When I learned their store was in Pasadena, I was a little disheartened because it is hard for us to pass up Fosselman's whenever we go that direction for dessert, but I figured I would try it out at some point.

Carmela isn't really near any part of Pasadena I've ever been before.  It's close to the 210 but in a neighborhood that seems to be primarily Armenian or...well I am not sure on the Ethnicity but it isn't the kind of walking neighborhood you'd expect a place like this to be located.  Carmela's main competitor is probably Mother Moo Creamery which is just to the East in Sierra Madre on the main drag.  I was sort of expecting the same neighborhood feel, but I guess they get their advertising by word of mouth instead of passerbys.

The employees at Carmela were incredibly excited about their ice cream.  They spouted off stories about their ingredients for each flavor and urged us to taste five different flavors before making our decision. I loved the little metal spoons they use for tastes and the old-fashioned feel of the ice cream makers mixing their craft right behind the counter.

The flavors change all the time based on what season it is as they tend to use ingredients in season at the moment to make their ice creams.  I tasted Classic Rocky Road, Salted Caramel, Strawberry Buttermilk, Lavender Honey, and Rose Petal flavors.  I ordered a double scoop consisting of Classic Rocky Road made with not even frozen at all walnuts (huge plus) and homemade marshmallows and salted caramel in a waffle cone.  It turns out that I could have gotten a single split-scoop and not ordered so much ice cream after all but still tasted two flavors. I think that is a good option because a double scoop gets a little big.  On the other hand, an extra scoop was only $1 more so I kind of felt like it was the best deal.

The ice cream is incredibly rich and really one scoop (which is actually two scoops) of the same flavor is a little bit too much of one flavor.  The waffle cone was perfect, lightly flavored, not heavy feeling and a perfect holder for the ice cream.  The rocky road was the best I've ever had, the salted caramel got tiresome after awhile and I wished for more chocolate.

I want to try more flavors and see those friendly people again so I am definitely going back.  Next time, I will get a split single scoop and maybe a cup or their ingenious waffle cone cups which come in a cup with a bit of waffle so you still get the cookie taste without having to worry about the meltiness surrounding the typical cone vehicle.





Carmela Ice Cream
2495 E Washington Blvd
Pasadena, CA 91104, USA