Vancouver’s dessert game is strong and different ways of enjoying your ice cream are constantly popping up. From ice cream tacos, to fish-shaped ice cream cones to deep fried ice cream, the cold dessert never gets boring. One of the latest ice cream creations involves smoke.
720 Sweets & Etc. is pairing their ice cream with dry ice and water, which creates an elusive steaming effect and has drawn many people to try the photogenic treat.
720 Sweets & Etc. is a dessert shop that serves locally sourced specialty ice cream. They have unique soft-serve flavours like matcha, milk tea, and black sesame, which they serve in handmade ice-cream sandwiches, taiyaki ice cream cones, and smoking cups.
They’re located in Richmond, on West Broadway, and most recently at their new location connected to the T&T Supermarket at Metropolis at Metrotown. This is where I tried my first 720 Sweet. They have a little booth where they are limited to two soft serve flavours: matcha and milk tea, which come in four different combinations:
- Milk’ee: a chocolate stick, almonds, caramel boba, and caramel sauce
- Milk’ee Way: an almond waffle, almonds, caramel popcorn, and caramel sauce
- Matcha Madness: mochi, red bean, rice krispies, and condensed milk
- Matcha Kinako: Korean rice cake, roasted soy bean powder, pocky and condensed milk
720 Sweets has massive plans of opening up at every T&T Supermarket in the country, with Burnaby’s location being the first. Given the amount of traffic and families with children at these grocery stores, the idea is impressive. I ordered a Milk’ee Way sundae and despite the rush of the store, the service at the booth was quick and amiable.
The most important ingredient is the dry ice, of course, which comes out of a cooler. Once it is placed at the bottom of your ice cream cup, you have about 30 seconds to snap a picture, so the pressure is on. Admittedly, it’s a little frustrating getting a photo of the dessert. Additionally, the location doesn’t have any counters or seats and T&T Supermarket and Metrotown as a whole are very busy.
720 Sweets is very much about presentation. The smoking effect is a cool marketing trick, however, it doesn’t add to the flavour of the ice cream itself.
For $5.95 plus tax, the price is average for a specialty ice cream in Vancouver. The milk tea flavour, however, is above average. I’ve only tried milk tea flavour in bubble tea and as an ice cream flavour it is nice, light and not too sweet. The soft serve quality makes it taste like frozen yogurt. The milk tea goes really well with the caramel popcorn and wafer they pair it with.
Because of the way the frozen ice cream is served from the machine, the centre of the ice cream was sadly hollow. I also think they could be more liberal with their toppings. The caramel drizzle was very light and the toppings felt more like a garnish, but I’m also the type of person who likes to drench their food in every sauce and topping available.
Overall, the 720 Sweet ice cream is satisfying. If you’re an Instagram and food junkie such as myself, it’s worth grabbing a bite (and shot) of this ice cream. If you’re looking for more flavour options, I would suggest checking out their Richmond or Broadway location.
Karolina is a Vancouver-based writer. You can catch her thinking about her next meal and grooving to house music, often at the same time.
