Happy National Ice Cream Day! Here are 4 Tucson spots to celebrate

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I'm not entirely sure who decides when food holidays are, but today is said to be National Ice Cream Day, so I won't even bother to ask.

National Ice Cream Day aside, with Tucson's 100-degree weather, ice cream is almost a necessity.

Here are four places to help satisfy your ice cream fix.

Hub Ice Cream Factory

245 E. Congress St., 622-0255, hubicecream.com

When the restaurant portion of Hub started serving ice cream, the staff noticed such a high demand that they decided to open a separate shop for just the cold stuff.

The restaurant still serves select flavors of ice cream, but the real party happens across the street at Hub Ice Cream Factory, where 24 flavors are offered — out of 300 rotating ones.

“My favorite part about making ice cream is that first spoonful of quality control straight out of the machine,” Executive Pastry Chef Dominique Stoller said in an email in 2018. “It is like a fluffy, creamy, sweet cloud of velvety goodness that melts all over your tongue.”

Stoller started at Hub a little over two years ago. She calls it her dream job.

“I think that when things are made fresh and from scratch, you get higher quality. People can taste the love,” she says.

As for flavors, Stoller says her favorites are S’mores, Orange Dream, and Queen Bee — a vanilla base with honeycomb toffee and dark chocolate.

Beyond scoops of ice cream, Hub offers floats, ice cream cookie sandwiches, choco-tacos and popsicles.

Cashew Cow

16 S. Eastbourne Ave., 326-8558, cashewcow.com

For those who can’t enjoy the dairy-filled treat that is ice cream, Cashew Cow is the place you want to be. And for those who want something vegan-friendly, Cashew Cow is the place you also want to be.

The ice cream is cashew-based, and dairy free. It’s made from scratch and comes together when cashews are soaked in water and blended with sugar and ingredients such as vanilla. The mixture is eventually frozen and turned into an ice cream texture, with other fun flavors added in.

Newman, who has a background in nutrition, started Cashew Cow in 2014.

“For me, it was about finding a healthier version of ice cream,” she said in an interview last year, adding that making the cashew-based ice cream is certainly a process, though “a lot of love goes into it.”

The Screamery

50 S. Houghton Rd. (721-5299); 2545 E. Speedway Blvd. (777-3080); 250 E. Congress St. (207-7486); 5920 W. Arizona Pavilions Dr. (328-8145), 5870 E. Broadway (600-3776); thescreamery.com

The Screamery started in 2014 and has since blossomed into several locations across Tucson and one in Phoenix.

Linda and Kenny Sarnoski started The Screamery after trying a new diet, which consisted of only consuming natural and simple ingredients. At the time, they couldn’t find any all-natural ice cream choices. So, they made it themselves.

The ice cream is made with milk from grass-fed cows, cream, sugar, eggs and whatever flavor they’re currently playing with. It’s then pasteurized, sits for 24 hours, churned, and placed in a hardening cabinet to freeze for another 24 hours.

And despite multiple locations in Tucson and another two hours away, the ice cream is made the same for every spot.

“I still love our ice cream,” Linda said last year. “I still crave it, and I know that I’m eating a good, chemical-free dessert.”

Among her favorite flavors is the Sweet Cream Honeycomb, which is also a customer favorite. It’s made with local raw honey mixed into a sweet cream base.

“What we try to do is stay true to old-fashioned roots of ice cream flavors,” Linda says. “That’s why we have common staples, but we also like to include fun, invented flavors to keep people interested.”

Pistacchio Gelato Naturale Italiano

Inside Tucson Mall at 4500 N. Oracle Rd., 528-6202, pistacchiogelato.com

Okay, so maybe this story isn’t just about ice cream. You can’t forget about Italy’s favorite — gelato.

According to Pistacchio Gelato’s website (formerly known as Allegro-Gelato Naturale Italiano), gelato is a lot different than ice cream. The gelato at Pistacchio contains less than half the milk fat than ice cream. Gelato is also denser, which provides a creamier texture. It’s also served warmer than ice cream because it’s not as frozen, thus “enhancing its flavor as it melts in your mouth,” the website says.

“It seemed to us that Tucson was a great location because it’s warm, and there were not too many gelato stores,” CEO and Executive Manager Pietro Rapella, who is from Italy, said in an email last year. He added that his gelato uses “fresh and natural ingredients supporting the local farmers and small businesses like us.”

Pistacchio serves up many classic flavors, but Rapella says his favorite is Stracciatella, which he says is the Italian version of chocolate chip. The shop also offers natural fruit sorbets.