Alcoholic ice cream parlour in Desa Sri Hartamas, Kuala Lumpur

The Ice Cream Bar

Rum and Raisin, Grown Up

3.5 of 5

Every ice cream shop in the world sells one boozy flavour and pretends it is daring. The Ice Cream Bar in Desa Sri Hartamas asked the obvious next question in 2016: what if all of them were? The answer is a scoop shop where the spirits are on the ingredient list, made in small batches by people who admit, cheerfully, that the research involved a lot of tasting on the job.

The trick is harder than it sounds. Alcohol does not freeze, so push the proof too far and you get a gloopy puddle. The makers talk about balance, and the texture shows they mean it. Start with the classic they built the shop around, rum and raisin made with spiced rum and soaked raisins. Then try the crunchy coffee whisky, a coffee ice cream spiked with Kentucky bourbon and studded with chocolate-coated cone bits and a dark chocolate hazelnut sauce. There is a Baileys flavour for the smooth-and-sweet crowd.

It is a dessert, not a night out, and a scoop will not do much more than warm the conversation. Hartamas is a dinner neighborhood, so treat this as the last stop after a meal nearby. Hours run 11.30am to 11pm. There is a second counter at 1 Utama in Petaling Jaya, but the Hartamas shop is the original and the better place to linger.

Order this

Rum and raisin, Crunchy coffee whisky, The Baileys flavour, Ask for a taste of whatever is new

The damage

$

Go

After dinner in Hartamas; open 11.30am to 11pm

Find it

60 Jalan 27/70a, Desa Sri Hartamas, 50480 Kuala Lumpur

Website

theicecreambar.com.my