Rollin’ Moose rolling ice cream in Lava
This summer has been a hot one, and, according to some reports, July was the hottest month ever recorded.
When looking for ways to cool down, one treat always comes to mind and one truck in Lava Hot Springs is serving up ice cream in a way that might be unfamiliar to you. Rolled.
“We get a lot of people, you know, obviously from out of town here that come visit and most people don’t know what it is so we explain it to ’em and they’re just like ‘oh okay’ and then you hand it to them and they’re like ‘oh my gosh, this is so pretty,’ this is so neat and then they taste it and ‘they’re like holy cow,'” Morgan Evans explained.
For the past month and a half, Evans, Kimberly Neese, and the rest of their family have been serving the town of Lava rolled ice cream as Rollin’ Moose.
“I think it personally tastes better because we make, like, the liquid cream base every morning,” Neese said. “It’s homemade, it’s not freezer burnt, it just tastes better, I think. And then it’s unique because it’s not something you see every day.”
The unique nature is what impressed the family on a Christmas trip to Colorado. After seeing a similar truck on social media, the family waited in line for nearly an hour and a half to try it.
“Then we got it and it was amazing,” Evans said. “It was so good and right then we thought this would do so good in Lava.”
But they didn’t know where to start. Then, in May, a trailer came on the market that was already set up. So they jumped on the opportunity, buying the trailer and setting up shop the next weekend.
Since then, it’s been all business and all the mix-ins you can imagine.
“You can mix in whatever you like. We even have people that bring stuff, you know, like ‘here’s a monster, can you put it in?’ you know, kind of a thing, and we’re just like sure.”
No matter what you’re throwing in, its a pretty simple process. It starts by laying the items on the plate, which hovers around 20 below zero, then adding the cream and mashing it up. Once sufficiently mashed, it’s flattened out, rolled up and served.
A process that even makes the employees hungry.
“Yeah it’s tough like I’ll just be sitting there and the things tempting me, I’m just like I’m gonna make my own real quick. yeah, it’s fun,” Neese said.
“We get to try out all our own flavors,” Evans explained. “So, make our own and wing it, but definitely eat one every time we’re in here.”
It’s been an awesome summer for Rollin’ Moose and they said that their tentative plan is to stay open as long as they can and then open on the weekends in the winter.
As you’re probably well aware, the truck can move and they plan to, already having received invitations to numerous events and festivals in the future.
