A little ways past the hustle and bustle of downtown Glendale, an ice cream shop stands out as the Los Angeles suburb’s best ice cream joint. Cauldron Ice Cream’s specialty flavors and famed, neon “it won’t lick itself” sign immediately became a popular spectacle on social media sites such as Snapchat after opening its doors in the latter half of 2017.

As customers enter the double glass doors of Cauldron Ice Cream, a warm chorus of “welcome!”s immediately greets them from behind the stainless-steel counters and liquid nitrogen dispensers. Eyes are immediately drawn to the vibrant pink neon sign as guests walk towards the counter to order from that particular month’s menu.

Part of Cauldron Ice Cream’s philosophy is to rotate flavors monthly, which successfully contrasts an agenda of complacency while also effectively forcing guests to try alien flavors. Though a lack of consistency is a sufficient complaint, the ice cream joint prematurely adheres to such complaints by ensuring each flavor is just as unique — with varying textures and colors — as it is better than the last.

On my first visit to the ice cream shop, I ordered one of the more popular flavors, Sea Salted Caramel Crunch, while my girlfriend ordered the Earl Grey Lavender. For an extra charge, we were offered puffled ice cream cones, which added to Cauldron’s “better than the next” approach to their competition.

The Sea Salted Caramel stood out as the superior flavor, with the Earl Grey Lavender trailing not far behind. The former’s sweet creaminess was met with speckles of salt and a hefty abundance of crushed pretzel bits, while the latter was a somewhat monotonous flavor; however, the Earl Grey Lavender was still a riveting left hook to my taste buds. Its semi-sweet flavoring fell nothing short of my expectation of a tea-based flavor, but the added honey drizzle led to dashes of extra flavor between spoonfuls. The creaminess of both flavors came as a shock — after initially being flavored cream solidified by liquid nitrogen, I expected the product to be a little stiff.

Cauldron Ice Cream exceeded my expectations of a specialty ice cream shop. It could’ve settled for being unique in its niche of serving puffled waffle cones, but its monthly rotation of flavors and textures sets the bar for future specialty ice cream shops in Glendale.

208 North Brand Boulevard

Sun – Thu 12-10 p.m.

Fri – Sat 12-11 p.m.

Glendale, CA 91203

(818) 945-5890