Freezing Cow good ice cream, not worth price

The two strawberry Pocky sticks precariously shoved into my ice cream presented a mild challenge. Was I supposed to eat them by themselves, or mash them into my ice cream somehow? This was made more difficult as my ice cream was in rolls.
That’s right, rolls. Tulsa now has a rolled ice cream shop, as of early September, nestled next to the Olive Garden in front of the Woodland Hills Mall.
Named Freezing Cow, the shop is a bright, colorful building, with Post-it notes, written by customers, decorating much of the wall space. These Post-It notes were generally follow requests on various social media, but the occasional derivation from the theme often proved interesting. We found Bo Burnham quotes, drawings of bad first dates and a dinosaur.
The line was the first thing I noticed when making my way to the store. It stretched in a U-shape from the counter, and had me worried about wait times. In the end, it took approximately twenty to thirty minutes for us to get our ice cream, so I would not recommend going on a Friday night.
The draw of this place, is of course, the rolled ice cream. This process was developed in Thailand and then spread across the world, until it ended up in Tulsa. And at Freezing Cow, you can see your ice cream being made right in front of you.
But first, you have to pick it out. Freezing Cow has 12 basic combinations with pre-set items mixed into the ice cream. Customers can then choose to add up to three toppings, including fruits, candy and more. This ordering system was not obvious; I, and others around me, thought you could either choose a combo or create your own with the toppings. This slowed down an already long line.
After telling the worker your choice for dessert, you pay and move to another line to watch the ice cream being made. These lines often blended together, further confusing the customers. No matter what you get, the ice cream comes down to a cold $5.99, before taxes. No kids sizes, smalls or larges here.
Watching the ice cream being made, however, was rather enjoyable. Freezing Cow has six stations to make ice cream, and while not all of them were in use when we went, the sound of those that were was loud. The ice cream is made by pouring a base of sweet milk on a cold steel surface. The base differs, depending on the flavor, and workers also add the toppings listed in the combination part of the order. These are chopped up, distributing the flavor, and then the frozen base is spread across the surface. Then the worker scrapes it into rolls, six per cup. After, the additional toppings are sprinkled onto the rolls, and voila, you have your ice cream.
It is entertaining to watch, and certainly fun to try to determine if what’s being made is your ice cream.
Then came the true test: was this ice cream better in some way? Did the process make it somehow more delicious, more creamy, just better?
The answer: it’s different. I ordered the Evil Berries, which was a vanilla base with blackberries, blueberries and raspberries. Although, to be honest, I saw one raspberry, a blackberry and a few blueberries mixed in. The toppings I chose: strawberry Pocky, a graham cracker and peanuts, were sprinkled over the surface. Others in my party got Monkey Business (vanilla base with banana, graham cracker, nutella and chocolate sauce) with peanuts and a toasted marshmallow on top, and Cow’s Latte (coffee base) with whipped cream.
On first bite the rolls collapsed, making the dessert especially creamy. But further down, where the ice cream hadn’t softened, the layers almost seemed harder than regular scooped ice cream. As I also like my toppings mixed, the layers were quickly gone anyways, so I could randomly get Pocky bits, instead of eating the stick by itself.
As for the others’ ice creams, Cow’s latte was perfectly coffee flavored; no weird artificial flavorings here. And the caffeine was real too — it kept my friend up that night. The nutella in Monkey Business truly sold my other friend on Freezing Cow.
Overall, I liked the rolled ice cream. It was cold and sweet and with the variety of toppings they offer, it would take a long time to repeat yourself. But, it’s ice cream. Call me simple, but I don’t need super fancy ice cream; I want ice cream that tastes good. And for most ice cream, that’s an easy enough sell. Freezing Cow was good, yes, but not out of this world.
In the end, I was satisfied, but didn’t think it was worth the six bucks or the time. This might be a place to stop if you want something unique and fun and Insta-worthy, but it’s not a place for repeat visits, in my mind.