I scream, you scream, UCR ice cream.

Highlanders will no longer have to look far for frozen treats on campus. An ice cream shop with exclusive UC Riverside citrus flavors is opening at the HUB.

Scoops Ice Cream Shop will open Thursday, Sept. 26, the first day of instruction for the fall quarter. Located in the food court, the ice cream shop will operate Monday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. A grand celebration is planned for later in the quarter. 

Dining Services had been looking to add a dessert option to the HUB, said Kurt Duffner, director of retail and restaurants for Dining Services. The collaboration with a boutique creamery allowed the opportunity to do so while spotlighting UCR-grown and developed citrus varieties, he said.

Scoops will offer ice cream in scoops or cones as well as ice cream sundaes, soda floats, and a cookie sandwich. Customers can choose between a variety of flavors such as rocky road and mint chocolate chip and toppings such as Oreo crumbs and sprinkles.

The shop offers two signature flavors, chocolate citrus and vanilla citrus, created by Coney Island Creamery, an artisanal ice cream manufacturer based in San Dimas, in collaboration with Dining Services and the Givaudan Citrus Variety Collection at UCR. The two flavors will also be packaged and sold in four-ounce cups at Scotty’s stores on campus.

The rest of the ice cream flavors at Scoops are supplied by Blue Bunny Ice Cream while the cookies and cones are baked fresh at the Sweet Tooth Bakery at Glasgow Residential Restaurant. The waffle cones and bowls are made at Scoops.

“You’ll have the smell of freshly made waffles cones filling the HUB,” Duffner said.

A women- and family-owned creamery that specializes in tropical and Southeast Asian flavors, Coney Island has produced citrus and avocado ice cream flavors for Cal Poly Pomona. Custom collaborations is a specialty for the company, which produces small batch flavors for its clients that include restaurants and other food service businesses, said co-owner Candice Mallari.

After UCR reached out, the ice cream makers visited the Citrus Variety Collection, picking fruit and tasting different varieties with Tracy Kahn, the curator. 

“That was a really cool experience to launch this collaboration,” Mallari said. 

She and her partners were impressed by not only the flavors of the fruit but the variety of colors. They sought to capture that in the ice cream flavors they produced, Mallari said.

The creamery produced about a half-dozen flavors. Dining Services then held tasting sessions with members of its culinary team and selected four flavors.

“It’s been a lot of fun doing our testing to find the right flavors,” Duffner said.

In addition to the chocolate citrus and vanilla citrus, a citrus sorbet will be introduced at Scoops later this year. The chocolate and vanilla are made with Bokhouzba and Ortanique, two UCR-developed citrus varieties. The sorbet is a blend of Tango, Gold Nugget, and Yosemite Gold varieties developed at UCR.

Mallari is particularly excited about the bergamot flavor using the orange fruit of the same name, which has a fragrant flavor also used in Earl Grey tea. 

“The smell is something that really captivates when you get to taste it,” she said.

The bergamot flavor will be available only at the Stable Restaurant at the Barn as part of a dessert called bergamot delight that features a fluffy cruller cinnamon-sugar donut topped with the ice cream and smoked salted caramel sauce.

Moses Preciado, Dining Services general manager, said they wanted to spotlight the bergamot as a flavor exclusive to the Stable as part of its menu of more elevated dishes.

Scoops is the latest partnership between Dining Services and researchers to create unique products based on UCR’s agricultural research, which include a gift line and citrus beer sold at the Barn.

Dining Services and Coney Island Creamery plan to work with Kahn to develop and test different flavors from the Citrus Variety Collection. They also hope to incorporate honey from the Center for Integrative Bee Research (CIBER) and avocados developed at UCR in future offerings.

“There’s a lot of possibilities to be able to test flavors using the strengths of the changing season and the availability of produce,” Mallari said. “We’re excited to see what we can work with next.”