The Latest Scoop Offers Plethora of Flavors

The Latest Scoop, a local ice cream shop, offers a plethora of flavors to customers out of its trailer on the 300 Block of South Irving street. The trailer is located at the Bosque on the Concho River, and is open from 12 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Sid Clemmer, the owner of The Latest Scoop, has made ice cream for over 50 years since he was 12 years old. He expects that the shop will serve up to 100 flavors this year at 8 to 10 flavors at a time.

“The reason it’s called The Latest Scoop is because we’re always bringing out new flavors,” Clemmer said. “We’ll keep always trying new things.”

As of today, Clemmer plans to make flavors of ice cream that have bacon and chocolate in them.

“I think of what would be pleasing to somebody first off [when inventing a flavor],” Clemmer said. “I know ice cream well enough to know that with the cream that I have, you could add some spice to it; you could add some pepper to it; [and] you could add a little southwest flair.”

Furthermore, he said that he wants to make avocado ice cream inspired by his time in Brazil.

“I try to be inventive,” Clemmer said. I also try to be original when I can be.”

Clemmer’s original flavors were received with success at Austin’s Ice Cream Festival last year. Clemmer’s Tahitian Vanilla Bean won first prize and his lemon ice cream won best of show in the lemon category.

“There were a lot of really good [and] creative recipes there,” Clemmer said. “But out of all of those, my vanilla won first place because it was so good and so different. It’s not just plain vanilla. I use Tahitian vanilla in that, which is different than the Madagascar bourbon that most people use. It has more full tones to it.”

Flavors that are currently available at the shop include blueberry lavender and sea salt/butter pecan. The shop also serves of smoothies with flavors that the customers choose themselves.

“Everything’s hand made,” Clemmer said. “We make the ice cram here in town. [It’s] made from fresh ingredients and fresh fruit. If it’s strawberry, it’s got real strawberry puree in it. If it says pecans, it’s got pecans and I roast them myself. It’s a new way of doing ice cream in San Angelo.”

Clemmer’s family has been making ice cream for about three generations. Both Clemmer’s grandmother and Clemmer’s father made homemade ice cream. In turn, Clemmer’s father taught him the family recipe and he’s been making ice cream ever since.

Clemmer’s dream for years was to attend an ice cream short course at Penn State University that has been offered for 125 years. The course is made up of eight 14-hour days of learning “everything there is to know about ice cream.”

“I [had] a lot of questions to ask and I got some of the answers,” Clemmer said.

According to Clemmer, when he attended the course, his classmates included employees of Ben and Jerry’s, Bluebell, and the H-E-B ice cream plant. Furthermore, the class had eight different countries represented, including Mexico, Canada, Brazil and China.

Clemmer’s additional experience includes running a bed and breakfast inn and making homemade ice cream for it for years.

Clemmer hopes to someday build a brand around The Latest Scoop.

“I hope that when people think of ice cream, they think of the latest scoop,” Clemmer said. “I bought equipment to where I could, in the future, sell pints, quarts, and half-gallons, but that’s not my primary focus. My primary focus is selling it at a dip or two at a time and just see people enjoy it.”

Other ideas that Clemmer has for his business include a possible “fleet” of ice cream trucks. However, that is not what really matters to Clemmer.

“My goal, really, is to keep on making ice cream,” Clemmer said. “In order to do that, I’ll have to sell some of it. So I hope it’s good enough that people will always want to come wherever it is and get some. I can just get people to taste it, I think they’d be willing to come back and get more and tell their friends about it. I think that it’s not a goal that’s unreachable to think that I could build a brand making ice cream.”

On The Latest Scoop’s Facebook page, the business offers a chance for residents of the San Angelo area to suggest flavors of their own.

“We really hope that people come and taste our ice cream,” Celmmer said. "If my ice cream isn’t good enough for people to come back, then I don’t need to be in business. But I intend to make it, am trying to make it, and am making it good enough that people will want to come and have some more. I’ll continue to do that. I think anyone who comes and tries it won’t be disappointed. We have different flavors that should please everybody and we will certainly try to make sure that everybody gets some value from spending time with us. Hopefully, people will try us out.”