Exploring the Museum of Ice Cream in Downtown LA (2024)

The Museum of Ice Cream in Downtown Los Angeles is an edible adult Disneyland. It's a place where people of all ages come together and celebrate everything melty, creamy, and delightful. And by celebrate, I mean eat by the spoonful. Set up more like an experience than a formal museum, this ice cream pop-up was quite an event. With ice cream samples and other flavor bites all along the way, the Museum of Ice Cream was really like an edible yellow brick road. Follow the museum path and you will walk into rooms that feel like a scene out of Willy Wonka. The rooms, the colors, the flavors - everything was over the top!

To start the museum, we were greeted by a wall of decorative sweets and a scoop of local Santa Barbara McConnell's ice cream. The first room had a Southern California vibe with a hanging "Venice Cream" banner, a Hollywood sign changed to "Museum of Ice Cream", and pink Hollywood stars replaced with celebrity ice cream names like "Marilyn Mintroe" and "Strawberry Short Drake". Right after, we got lost in the banana room, where bananas hung from the ceiling in bundles!

The next room was the mint garden experience where we were greeted with mint chocolate chip mochi bites. I have hadmochi only a handful of times and I drooled over this particular rice cake enclosed mint chocolate chip ice cream. Themint chocolate room was lined withflower beds whichwerefilled with vibrant and fragrant mint plants. Going with the mint chocolate chip theme, the dirt for the mint plants were made of shaved cacao! Mint plants + shaved cacao dirt = mint chocolate chip! Right?

The sherbet room was so colorful. The room look like how sherbet tastes - electric, bright, and sweet.

The following two rooms were filled with melting popsicle figurines and gummy bears. In the gummy bear room, we were asked a few trivia questions. Now, it's time to test your gummy bear knowledge! 1) What flavor is the green gummy bear (hint: it's not a green fruit). 2) In which country did gummy bears originate? 3) What year was the gummy bear first created? Answers are right below the gummy bear picture!

Gummy bear trivia answers: 1) Strawberry, 2) Germany, 3) 1922. How did you do on the trivia? If it makes you feel better, I apparently am not a gummy bearaficionado.

The following exhibit was a great display of edible art. Walking into the room, we were handed mini cones of black cookie dough made with activated charcoal. The activated charcoal was flavorless and the consistency of the cookie dough was exactly like the one I know and love. We munched on our cones while enjoying the abstract artwork.

Immediately after the charcoal cookie dough, we took a dip in the sprinkle pool. The sprinkles were made of plastic and there was no diving, skinny dipping, or lifeguard on duty. Sprinkle dip at your own risk!

We finished the Museum of Ice Cream with one of my favorite ice cream snacks, but with a twist. I am a sucker for ice cream sandwiches and I was drooling over their version - ice cream smushed between two pink buttermilk pancakes. The buttermilk sandwiches were so soft and fluffy!

The excitement of LA's Museum of Ice Cream can be summed up best with their quote - "The Museum of Ice Cream is a place where flavors are mysteries, toppings are toys and sprinkles make the world a better place". We exited the Museum of Ice Cream feeling like kids again, seeing the world through rose colored glasses. Needing a pallet refresher, we headed out to dinner not promising to skip dessert. For days (even weeks!) after, we found tiny colorful sprinkles tucked snuggly into our shoes. Every time we spotted a little sprinkle, we smiled and remembered our time 'splashing' in the sprinkle pool. They really do make the world better!

Which Museum of Ice Cream room was your favorite? And if you are now craving something frozen and sweet, check out my frozen greek yogurt recipe here!

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