The Perfect $6 Mini Scoop Flight at Pumphouse Creamery

Pumphouse Creamery is my favorite ice cream shop in the Twin Cities, and they also have the best ice cream deal around: for six dollars, you can get a five-scoop mini flight to try different flavors. I took them up on this generous offer and tried 20 of their ice cream and sorbet flavors to make up the perrrrrrrfect five-scoop mini flight. If you’re looking for where to start for building your own flight of ice cream scoops, these are my top five flavors at Pumphouse Creamery, and I’ve tried them all (ok, maybe not all, but close!).

First, we have to discuss strategy. In order to create the perfect five-scoop mini flight, you have to have a variety of flavors that all go well together. In this case (pun intended), all of the flavors rotate, so you’re probably not going to get all five of these flavors at the same time. But you can sub out a classic flavor like vanilla for chocolate, or you could sub out strawberry rhubarb for rhubarb. You get the point.

For me, the perfect flight looks like two fruity flavors, two more classic flavors, and one wacky wild card.

Second, we have to talk about the order in which you eat the flavors. In the same way that wine flights go light to dark, we are going to go mild to whacky. If you start with your wild card flavor, that vanilla won’t hit quite as hard as it can (and should). This is my perfect five-scoop mini flight, in the order I recommend you eat them in.

I think you can mostly judge if an ice cream parlor is going to be good by how their vanilla tastes. And the malted vanilla with malted milk balls is one of my favorite vanilla ice creams around. The big pieces of chocolate add a perfect crunch to an otherwise silky base that’s heavy on the malt. It’s a great first scoop to ease you into everything Pumphouse has to offer.

Every year, Pumphouse Creamery debuts new flavors like this Eastern European-inspired scoop. This flavor combines wild blueberries with quark, an unaged soft cheese, and the flavor profile is stunning. The quark is mild (think ricotta), and the wild blueberries have a bit more pucker than their commercial varieties. These two opposites play well together, giving you a mix of bright tartness and yogurt vibes in every bite.

You should almost always get the most popular seller at any ice cream shop you go to, and at Pumphouse Creamery, that’s their rhubarb. But this year, they debuted a new flavor that combines two of their best sellers: strawberry rhubarb. Their rich local strawberry base is studded with ribbons of crystal-y, tart rhubarb. I thought I was a rhubarb purist at Pumphouse until I tried this ice cream, and now I have to say, I’m a convert.

This flavor has been on the menu for over 20 years–and for good reason. This salty bad boy is one of my favorite things to eat on a hot summer day when my brain is screaming, “ELECTROLYTES.” This scoop has the perfect amount of praline pecan with big hunks of caramel, both of which have the perfect notes of roasty-toasty flavor. It’s the most decadent flavor on the menu, reminding me of bonfires on the lake.

From here, the last flavor is up to you. You could get a mint chocolate chip where the chocolate chips are housemade and the mint is front and center. You could choose the newly debuted chili crisp with honey-roasted peanuts, which already has such a strong cult following that people keep DMing me about it. Or if it comes back, you could get my favorite wacky flavor at Pumphouse, black garlic and chocolate chip. (Trust me!! Black garlic is mild, like balsamic and dates!) The world is your oyster, er, cone. Have at it.

When I’m not trying to try every flavor on the menu, my go-to split scoop is lavender and chocolate. These two flavors together are perfect for late Minnesota sunsets and a walk around the neighborhood. The lavender isn’t overpowering and the chocolate is truly the best around, with a vibe somewhere between milk and dark chocolate. There are no gimmicks to either flavor and no frills. It’s just dried lavender or chocolate with good cream and eggs, as the ice cream gods intended.