JAM Rolled Ice Cream – Reviewed

by Anuki Premachandra

Rolled Heaven in a cup!

After opening up Café Shaze over 3 years ago, Sharfaz, the owner, decided that it was time for a new venture. Rolled ice-cream was the ‘it’ thing on social media not too long ago, and after seeing rolled ice-cream in Thailand for the first time, he knew that it was high time the Sri Lankans had it to! This is the birth of Jam – Colombo’s latest ‘it’ place! The talk of the town, rolled ice-cream is finally in the city! We knew we had to give it a try as soon as it got here, and that’s why we hopped onto it, on their very first day of business for a quick first look!

We too saw of their opening on Facebook along with a 1200+ other people who had ticked themselves as ‘interested’ in the event. Just because you click that button doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going, yes? Wrong! As we pulled up to Jam, people flooded through its doors. The place was jam-packed (pun intended)!

Jam is a chic ice-cream parlor that can accommodate 20+ people, made beautiful with walls of white brick and wooden finish paneling. It’s not too extravagant, but is a perfect place to hang out with a few friends and enjoy some rich rolled ice-cream.

Service & Ambience

Like said earlier, it’s an absolutely great place to chill. With Café Shaze on the side, the two ventures really complement each other.

We couldn’t really enjoy the experience because it was super overcrowded and they had not been ready to serve this great a demand (which actually is pretty understandable and note it was in fact their first day of business). The waiters were flustered and the guy that was making the rolled ice-cream was flying solo! We felt so bad for him. About 3 hours into the opening, the guy was absolutely exhausted.

Ice-cream

Since all that hype was about the ice-cream, we decided to try it out first. They’ve also got a selection of crepes – both sweet and savory, milkshakes, waffles and mini-pancakes.

Let’s get down to business. All in all, their ice-cream is something we would hold very dear to our hearts. Although Frosties does the similar type of rolled ice-cream, it’s not in commercial Colombo and that’s why Jam instantly became such a hit, waaay before it was even open.  

Disclaimer: There’s 5 medium sized ice-cream rolls in each serving.

Try-outs: Oreo Blaze – Rs.500, Kitul Delight – Rs.500 and 2 other rolled ice-creams we created on our own (yes, you can do that too!) – Rs.500 each

The Oreo blaze is an ice-cream concoction with Oreos as your base (obviously) with the options of either vanilla milk, chocolate milk or condensed milk mixed to it. And being the chocoholics we were, we picked the chocolate milk. All of their ice-creams come with some whipped cream on top – bonus! Sadly, we weren’t fans of the whipped cream or the honey like topping that the Oreo-Blaze had. The ice-cream was incredibly creamy, chocolaty and insanely rich in taste. We would have honestly preferred more crunch and more Oreos but for a first time, it was pretty worth it.

We knew we had to try out the Kitul Delight because it was Sri Lankan AF.  This ice-cream is a beautiful mix of jaggery and vanilla milk. We loved how it looked and it was such a great experience having it, partially because the first ice-cream we had, the Oreo Blaze was quite melted by the time it came to our table, this was not. Kitul was the aftertaste of the ice-cream. It’s like when you down a few shots and then a few minutes later, the alcohol hits your system and you realize you’re done for.  It takes some time for the taste of Kitul to hit your taste buds, but when it does, it leaves your palate very pleased. We also had some crunchy and sweet pani kadju topped in addition to our whipped cream.

Because, and only because we were absolutely in awe of all the toppings they had, we decided we had to get ourselves some customized rolled ice-cream. For now they’ve got over 10 different flavours and add-ons and Sharfaz assured us that with time, the list will only get longer. Boy, weren’t we elated!

Following is the procedure:

Step 1 – Base: Vanilla| Chocolate | Rose Milk | Mocha | Soya

Step 2 – Flavours: Oreos | Strawberries | Chocolate (selective) | Banana | Biscuits (selective) | Desiccated coconut | Dates | Raisins   

Step 3 – Drizzle: Marshmallows (selective) | Nutro wafers | Chocolate chips | Oreo | Strawberry |Gummy bears| Stone Chocolate | Fruit Gum |M&Ms |M&M peanuts | Raisins | Bananas

Step 4 – Topping: Caramel syrup | chocolate syrup | Strawberry syrup | Nutella | Whipped cream | Honey | Kitul Pani

The Customized Rolled Ice Cream:

1.Base – Chocolate

   Flavours – Chocolate selective: Twix

   Drizzle – M&M peanuts

   Topping – Nutella

This was, in all its sense, heaven in a well sized plastic cup! The rich chocolaty texture of the ice-cream tasted insanely divine paired up with nothing but the best, Twix, M&M peanuts and Nutella. So ideally, the ice-cream is made like a kottu on a blast-chiller like surface. The Twix or a chocolate selective of your choice (depends on whatever that’s available that day) is added to the base and the whole thing is kottu-fied again. Next, its spread evenly, the topping is beautifully painted over it, and then once the ice-cream reaches the right texture, it is tediously rolled to perfection.  

One thing lacking was definitely the taste of Twix. We would have really preferred more of it in our ice-cream.

2.Base – Mocha

   Flavours – Chocolate selective: Snickers

   Drizzle – Gummy bears

   Topping – Nutella

If you are a coffee lover, you have found your life’s true calling. This ice-cream base is a perfect blend of coffee and when mixed with chocolate goodness, Snickers, we knew we were in for a treat. The ice-cream again, was very thick, milky and intently rich in flavor. You know for a fact that you’re having good ice-cream because its thick, but silky soft at the same time. The gummy bears were adorably placed in the ice cream as if they were on a nice tropical holiday. But, the only thing we hated about the ice-cream were the hardened gummy bears. Jeez, waiting in queue for around 2 hours for our ice-cream was easier than trying to chew onto these gummies!

Have you tried Jam yet? Let us know what you think of it in the comments below! Is there anything we’ve missed? If you’re looking for more places to have a rolled ice-cream, we’ve got you covered.

Don’t forget to take a look at our video review of JAM!

Tip: Make your own rolled ice-cream. It’s like a childhood dream come true!