Walking through rows of citrus groves on a sunny April morning, about a dozen UC Riverside Dining Services employees picked fruit off trees and loaded it in crates into the bed of a truck.
INSIDE UCR Author - Imran Ghori
A little more than a month later at the Scoops Ice Cream shop at the HUB, Brian Alcantara, retail restaurant manager for HUB operations, ladled ice cream freshly made from the same citrus he and his colleagues had picked at the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection.
It was the latest batch of custom ice cream flavors that Dining Services has created in partnership with Coney Island Creamery, an artisanal ice cream manufacturer based in San Dimas that specializes in boutique flavors.
They debuted the first UCR ice cream flavors in September with the opening of Scoops, which also sells other flavors supplied by Blue Bunny Ice Cream. The UCR signature flavors are also being packaged and sold in four-ounce cups at Scotty’s stores under the Citrus Gifts label.
The ice cream is the latest partnership between Dining Services and researchers to create unique products based on UCR’s agricultural research, including a gift line and citrus beer sold at the Barn.
“It’s super fun. The best part of our job in Dining is connecting the campus to students, staff, and faculty,” said Kurt Duffner, director of retail and restaurants for Dining Services. “There’s no better way to do that than food.”
Dining Services staff and the ice cream makers at Coney Island showed how they produce those flavors, which began with the trip to the Citrus Variety Collection.
Tracy Kahn, curator of the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection, guided them around, cutting up different varieties for them to taste as she described each fruit’s flavor. Boukhobza, a blood orange strain, and Ortanique, an orange and tangerine hybrid, are both UCR-developed citrus varieties.
“We picked them because they have a really good flavor,” Kahn said.
The group included chefs from the culinary team, managers from retail, and directors like Duffner, enjoying the opportunity to be outside and help choose the best fruit for new ice cream flavors.
“This is my third year of picking fruit here,” said Alex Meister, associate director of catering and hospitality “Each year they taste a little different.”
The group ended up picking 140 pounds of Boukhozba, 70 pounds of Orantique, and 30 pounds of Meyer lemons. The fruit was taken to the Glasgow Residential Restaurant on campus where dining staff juiced the oranges, creating marmalades, syrup, and curd.
A few weeks later, those ingredients were delivered to the Coney Island office where managing owner Sandra Saragih and two production assistants made 50 three-gallon tubs of ice cream over two days. The first day they created the Ortanique chocolate followed by Boukhobza vanilla the next morning.
Working in a small kitchen, they poured gallons of milk into a mixing pot, adding the marmalade, which already had already been sweetened with sugar, and chocolate powder. Using an immersion blender, they mixed the ingredients and then poured them into a batch freezer, a machine used to quickly freeze the mixture and whip it into a creamy consistency.
After 12 minutes in the batch freezer, production assistants rush large tubs of ice cream into a hardening cabinet to rapidly cool it and keep it at a consistent temperature for 24 hours. This prevents air from getting into the ice cream and extends its shelf life, said Saragih, who oversees the company’s ice cream production.
“You’re sort of shocking the ice cream so it gets even creamier,” Saragih said.
Although they didn’t join the recent fruit picking, Saragih and her partners at Coney Island have been able to explore the Citrus Variety Collection to research which fruits they would try out. She said she’s impressed by the fragrance and unique flavors of the citrus, saying each one has its own personality that they try to bring out in the ice cream.
“It’s an amazing collection,” she said. “It was really exciting to us to see the fruit raw and make it our own.”
Saragih, her sister, brother-in-law, and niece are the co-owners of Coney Island, which they bought in 2018 and relaunched with unique flavors including Filipino and Southeast Asian-inspired ones.
Producing small batches allows them to experiment and refine, said Candice Mallari, Saragih’s niece, the catering and events manager for the company. For instance, the first batch blended different citrus varieties together while this time they highlighted each fruit. They’ve also produced other flavors including Yuzu matcha and honey rose pistachio.
“We’re really excited to partner with UCR,” Mallari said. “We hope to continue to develop interesting and cool flavors.”
Duffner said they hope to continue using different products associated with UCR research including avocado and honey and creating new products like milkshakes and micheladas. He noted that they’re looking forward to picking more fruit in late fall to winter, which is prime citrus season.
Scoops has proven popular with students and employees, selling out of some of the UCR flavors like the Yuzu matcha within weeks. Dining Services has also served the Citrus Gift ice cream cups at several campus events including the recent farewell celebration for Chancellor Kim A. Wilcox.
“The response has been great,” Duffner said.