Hug Life Ice Cream
Serving legitimately delicious ice cream minus the actual cream, in multiple proven flavors
The signs at Garden Grove’s Hug Life Ice Cream – which is decorated with a painting of Tupac flashing a modified Thug Life tattoo – describe the ice cream shop not as dairy-free, but “anti-dairy,” a strong posture the famously bold, funny, and pugilistic rapper would probably have appreciated. And while the flavors themselves are aren’t surprising, Hug Life’s ice cream recipes are surprisingly dairy-like despite lacking lactose.
For instance, Matcha Monster mixes strong green tea and cookies, Thai Tea tastes just like… wait for it… Thai iced tea, and Pumpkin Spice tastes like a certain occasionally popular latte, including plenty of sweet spice. Vietnamese Coffee is a bright cafe sua da, rather than super heavy on coffee flavor, while Mint Chip combines powerful mint with chocolate bits and finishes with pandan; Chocolate and Rocky Road are very chocolatey, the latter with big marshmallows.
Almost all of the flavors are made with almond milk, though chocolate uses soy. Given the strength of most of these ice cream flavors, you wouldn’t know they’re fully plant based, though you may be able to tell that they’re not as obviously creamy and fatty as a scoop of Ben & Jerry’s. We found Hug Life’s best value to be the Hug-a-Bowl, which for $10.75 places three scoops in a chocolate-coated waffle bowl with your choice of toppings and a drizzle. But you can try three flavors for $1.50 less in a plain bowl, or stick with a single flavor for $5.50.
Our only complaints: The caramel drizzle on our Hug-a-Bowl wasn’t especially caramelly – more like a thickened sugar syrup glaze – and the other topping choices were basic enough that we skipped them. That said, we’d come back for another round of flavor sampling, and appreciated the friendly service.
Stats
Price: $
Service: Counter
Open Since: 2016/2017
Addresses
14241 Euclid Ave. Suite C115
Garden Grove, CA 92843
714.760.4345
Instagram: @huglifeicecream