The frozen treat map around the Sacramento Region does not have one center, and that is the first thing worth knowing before you decide where to go. The shops people will genuinely drive for are scattered from Placerville to Woodland.
Here is the honest frame before the list. The trade here is not flavor, it is distance. Almost nothing on the list is near anything else on it, so the real question is not which shop is best. It is which one sits on a route you already drive.
THIS MAP IS FOUR COUNTIES, NOT ONE NEIGHBORHOOD
The shops fall into Sacramento County first, then spill outward. Placer County covers Roseville, Rocklin, Granite Bay and Auburn. Yolo County covers Davis and Woodland. El Dorado County covers Placerville, Shingle Springs and El Dorado Hills. A shop in Midtown is a Tuesday errand. A shop in Placerville is a Saturday.
TWO SHOPS THAT HAVE BEEN AT IT LONGER THAN MOST OF US
Gunther’s, in Curtis Park, opened in 1940 and still works from its original recipe, which is why it tastes heavier than most counters serve. It runs fruit freezes alongside the ice cream, in orange, lemon and mango, and other shops in the region name it when you ask where they go. Osaka-Ya, downtown, has been making Japanese confections since 1963, and each summer it opens a take-out window for shave ice in flavors it makes itself, including cherry, root beer and watermelon, with green tea powder or sweet red beans if you want them.
I put them first because a shop that stays open that long usually survives by refusing to change what already works.
SHAVE ICE IS A DIFFERENT CRAFT, NOT A FLAVOR OF ICE CREAM
Treating shave ice as a flavor of ice cream is how people end up disappointed. The texture is the product, and the texture is also why it cannot survive a car ride.
- Water and Salt, in West Sacramento. Shave ice made from alkaline water, with syrups made in house from real sugar rather than corn syrup. The flavors run to peach, strawberry and yuzu.
- Woodland Sno Shack, in Woodland. A food truck parked at Cracchiolo’s Market, with flavors running from cotton candy to tamarind.
- Hele on to Hawaii, in Elk Grove. Island style, with tiger’s blood, passion fruit and coconut, and condensed milk or li hing mui on top.
- Kobing Dessert Studio, in Citrus Heights. Bingsu, the Korean version, piled with fruit, mochi and condensed milk, plus soft serve in green tea and ube.
- Sweet and Shavery, in Davis. Italian ice made in house each day, with frozen custard if you want to build it into a parfait.
THE OVER-THE-TOP END, AND WHEN IT IS ACTUALLY WORTH IT
This is the category that shows up on social feeds, and it is genuinely fun. It is also a destination rather than a scoop.
- The Parlor, in Arden Arcade. Donut ice cream sandwiches in flavors like coffee, Nutella and taro coconut, and milkshakes crowned with a donut or a churro.
- Flores Munchies, in Rocklin. Milkshakes served in mason jars and topped past the point of reason, along with fruit freezes, mangonada and churros.
- Babes Ice Cream and Donuts, in Midtown. Every flavor is plant based and the whole menu is vegan and gluten free. If you are avoiding dairy, this is the one that is not a compromise.
- Mirabella Gelato, in Roseville. Italian classics done the Italian way, with tiramisu, amaretto and panna cotta, seasonal flavors and a daily sorbet.
- Shorty’s Gelato and Bakery, in Placerville. Gelato and sorbet beside a bakery case of cookies, chocolates, donuts and cupcakes.
The honest cost is the wait and the bill. If what you want is a cone, this is the wrong line to be standing in.
THE EVERYDAY SCOOP, FOR WHEN IT IS JUST A TUESDAY
Most frozen treat trips are not occasions. They are the end of a hot afternoon, so you want a shop near the errand you were already running.
- Davis Creamery, in Davis. Small batch and made in house daily, with flavors like salted caramel, coffee Oreo, horchata and honey lavender, plus vegan options.
- Hagen’s Orange Freeze, in Carmichael. The newer version of the old Merlino’s Orange Freeze, still doing blackberry, watermelon and strawberry guava, plus dairy freezes, shakes and floats.
- Burger and Cream, in Auburn. One of the few places left in the area doing true soft serve, including the twisty with candy or cookies folded right in.
- The frozen yogurt shops with several locations, for when you want to be near home: NuYo in Folsom, Granite Bay and Roseville, Yolo Berry in Davis, Tango in Auburn, The FroZone in Roseville, and Crazy for Yogurt in El Dorado Hills, Folsom, Rocklin and Carmichael.
Salt and Straw, in Roseville and Sacramento, is worth flagging in the same breath. It is a chain, which is why it gets a footnote rather than a place on the list.
THE COMPARISON I REACH FOR, AND WHERE IT STOPS WORKING
The closest ordinary thing I can think of is a farmers market. You do not shop the whole market. You walk to the one stall that grows the thing you came for, because that is the stall that does it properly.
That gets the specialization right and the geography wrong. At a farmers market the stalls are ten steps apart, so comparing them costs nothing. Here the good ones sit in different counties, forty minutes apart, and the comparison costs an afternoon of driving.
WHAT I WOULD TELL YOU TO WEIGH
- Distance is the real variable. Check which county a shop is in before deciding it is the one you want.
- Shave ice and soft serve do not travel, so plan to eat there.
- Some of it is seasonal. The shave ice window and the food trucks run in warm weather, so call before a long drive.
- The over-the-top shops are worth it once. The everyday scoop is what you will actually do on a normal week.
- This is not a ranking. I have not eaten at every shop on it, so treat it as a starting point rather than a verdict.
Where you live decides which of these is convenient. If a particular town is the reason you are reading this, the neighborhoods hub collects the guides by area, and the buying process page walks through what buying here involves.
Question for you: if the shop you always go to closed tomorrow, would you drive forty minutes for the next closest one, or find somewhere nearer and decide it was fine?
Adapted from Cool Off at These Locally Owned Ice Cream, Yogurt and Shave Ice Spots, originally published by Windermere Signature Properties at windermerecalocal.com.
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