Move over, froyo. A new dessert craze has landed in the South Bay, and it comes in the form of sweet and neatly sculpted ice cream curlicues. Rolled ice cream, also known as stir-fried ice cream, is the latest trend in frozen treats in the Bay Area, but it has long been a street food favorite in Thailand. Made on a frozen metal surface, liquid ice cream base is poured onto a slab, spread thin until frozen, and then curled into thick rolls that are embellished with toppings.

Ice3 (pronounced ice cube) Ice Cream is one of the few shops that’s brought this delicate dessert to the mainland. The concept is pretty simple: you choose a house-made ice cream base—vanilla, chocolate, chocolate mint, strawberry, matcha green tea or mango—then add your favorite combination of mix-ins, like fruit, Oreos, cereal or graham cracker crumbs. Mix-ins are chopped up and folded into the base, which begins freezing almost immediately after touching the sub-zero slab of metal. Within minutes, ice cold curls are formed, and the dessert is topped with your choice of over 30 different toppings and drizzles.

Luckily for me, Ice3 makes things easy for rolled ice cream novices. In addition to their do-it-yourself flavor combinations ($7), which all come with one base, one mixer, three toppings, and drizzle of your choice, the shop also has a lengthy list of Ice3’s  favorite (and most popular) combinations.

At $7 each, or $5.50 for a kids-size portion, I opted for the cookies and cream, a base of vanilla mixed with Oreo and topped with marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate wafer sticks and chocolate drizzle; the mocha, a chocolate base mixed with coffee and topped with a deluge of chocolate sprinkles, chocolate wafer sticks, whipped cream and chocolate drizzle; and the fruit roll-up, a mango-based mixed with fresh pineapple and topped with more pineapple chunks, fresh strawberry, strawberry wafers and capped with condensed milk.

While watching the ice cream get made is half the fun, Ice3’s finished creations also look and taste top notch. The cookies and cream, presented with roasted marshmallows on skewers and tons of whipped cream, was almost too pretty to eat. Flavors also matched the presentation—especially the tangy, fresh fruit topping on the fruit roll-up, which balanced out the super sweet mango base.

Ice3 also serves a variety of boba milk teas, as well as a dozen or so gelato flavors, all made in-house and without eggs. With unique flavors like Snickers and black sesame, I gave in and ordered a bubble waffle with a giant scoop of house-made Earl Grey gelato ($8) for good measure. The spherical, egg-shaped waffle was warm and crispy on the outside, and its tear-off bubbles made for great dipping tools. For the purists, Ice3 also serves waffles and ice cream scoops a la carte ($4.50 each).

It seems like rolled ice cream is here to stay, and Ice3’s almost flavor combinations make that an exciting prospect.

Ice3  Ice Cream
4750 Almaden Expy #116, San Jose
ice3creamery.com