It is August, and it is avocado season! While it’s true that avocado, that rich and creamy fruit with a large pit and green flesh, is available almost all year long, it is most abundant in August. The good news is that with so much supply, the price of avocado goes down, so there’s no better time to enjoy it at its finest and tastiest than now.
Ian Carandang, the brains behind Sebastian’s Ice Cream, knows this only too well. Constantly working with different types of fruits and other fresh produce and ingredients to develop new and exciting ice cream flavors, he has experimented with avocado many times in the past and come up with a rich, creamy and tasty Avocado Dream. This OG avocado ice cream of Sebastian’s is made with fresh avocado and condensed milk spun into a rich and velvety ice cream that has turned out to be one of the brand’s most requested flavors. He has been making Avocado Dream and putting it on the Sebastian’s menu whenever avocado is in season, and customers seem to like it a lot because they ask for it when it’s not available. As much as he wants to, Ian could not make Avocado Dream a regular item on the menu because of its seasonality.
“Unlike other fruits, like berries or mangoes, avocado does not freeze well, as the color turns brown and the flavor can turn bitter over time. So, there is a sense of immediacy to the season, since it is only during this time that it is truly abundant,” he explains.
At the height of the avocado season in August 2021, Ian decided to take full advantage of the fruit’s availability by creating other avocado iced treats to complement Avocado Dream and offer them in a seasonal promotion called Avocado August.
Avocado August does a repeat this year, and two fan-favorite ice creams are making a comeback — Avocado Dream and Avocado Macchiato — both priced at P140 per scoop and P420 per pint. Avocado Macchiato, a Sebastian’s original flavor, blends together coffee and avocado ice creams with chunks of dark chocolate and toasted almonds.
Joining these two returning seasonal favorites is a new creation, Avocado Strawberry. For this, Ian took the brand’s signature avocado ice cream and swirled in a ribbon of strawberry sorbet made with real strawberries. For the same prices per scoop and per pint, this new ice cream flavor is sure to make a comeback next year.
Sebastian’s also introduced four frozen novelty ice cream creations for customers to enjoy this August — Avocado Peanut Butter Dive Bar, Avocado Chocolate Chip Chilly Burger, Avocado Almond Poppits, and Avocado Butter Cake Ice Cream Cake.
The new Avocado Peanut Butter Dive Bar (P135 per bar) is an Avocado Ice Cream Bar that has been hand-dipped in sweet peanut butter and sprinkled with roasted peanuts. When developing this, Ian first used imported peanut butter but it turned out too salty. He then replaced it with local peanut butter and, lo and behold, it was a perfect match.
Chilly Burger.
Avocado Chocolate Chip Chilly Burger (P140 per piece) is two pieces of milk chocolate chip avocado cookies sandwiching avocado ice cream. Ian makes his own cookies and blends fresh avocado into the cookie batter before adding milk chocolate chunks and toasted almonds.
Avocado Almond Poppits (P145 for 8 pieces, P260 for 14 pieces) are bite-sized nuggets of Sebastian’s signature avocado ice cream dipped in white chocolate and toasted almonds. Just pop them in your mouth and bite to enjoy bursts of cold creaminess and flavor.
A slice of Avocado Butter Cake Ice Cream Cake on Masflex plate.
Avocado Butter Cake Ice Cream Cake can be enjoyed in slices (P155 per slice) or in whole cakes (P1,650 per whole nine-inch cake). Each is made up of layers of freshly baked avocado butter cake, avocado ice cream, and milk almond crumb, with drizzles of sweet peanut butter on top.
All these Avocado August treats are available for the entire month of August at Sebastian’s Ice Cream at The Podium mall in Mandaluyong City. Orders may also be coursed through the online store Sebastiansicecream.com.