Fifty Licks - Portland

The ice cream selection is fantastic! I tried the vegan Coconut Lemon Saffron flavor, and it was delightful. They also offer regular and gluten-free options. I can’t wait to go back and sample the French toast, Bananas Foster, and Mango Sticky Rice!

Such a unique spot! We have Salt Straw in Seattle so I didn't want to go there on my visit to Portland. Other ice cream spots around here closed relatively early (read: earlier), so Fifty Licks was up next. After I saw their flavors on the website, I was intrigued. I do wish they had sampling because there were so many different flavors I wanted to try. Overall, it's a lighter take on ice cream with less sugar (or less sweetness). I wanted to try the flavors I don't see as often but was afraid I might dislike them. So ultimately I opted for 1 safety and 3 new flavors. My safety flavor was my bread and butter, Strawberry Cheesecake, my go to. I enjoyed it a bunch as the cheesecake was able to shine. The sweetness of the ice cream was mild as to not overwhelm my entire cup and that allowed the flavor of the cheesecake to pop. I would definitely order this again, likely a pint. Next came the French Toast. It was a mild vanilla flavor with bits of toast. Nothing too surprising, but once again the sweetness was held back. The toast bits were fluffy but ultimately not a huge factor as they lacked any further substance. The maple cinnamon flavor wasn't relevant at all. Likely wouldn't order this again, but it's worth trying. Then there was the Blondie vs Brownie. The base ice cream was simply vanilla with yet again, a laid back flavor. Alongside that, there were extremely tiny bits of brownies and blondies. Blondies are essentially the vanilla equivalent of a brownie a bit less common so wanted to just point that out. Honestly, it was like eating vanilla ice cream with tiny bits of cake integrated but those cake pieces were way too minuscule to be relevant. Did not care for this flavor altogether, wouldn't really recommend it. Lastly, the Thai Rice was interesting! It was super light and reminded me of rice cake. This was probably my favorite flavor as it took such a simple flavor and elevated it to greater heights. Slightly nutty and not at all what I expected. It's not like eating rice and the flavor actually makes somewhat sense. Highly recommend this flavor.

A must-try! We were recommended this place by Dustin, who led our biking tour in Portland. We had to stop by and give it a shot. It's probably one of the best ice creams I've ever had, with my favorite being the mango sticky rice! We really appreciated how creamy the ice cream was, with different chunks of ingredients depending on the flavor. The only downside is that they only had a bench outside the shop, probably due to Covid restrictions. As first-timers, it felt a bit awkward just hanging out there without another place to go.

I tried a double mini with half saffron lemon and half sticky mango rice vegan ice cream flavors, and I was amazed at how creamy they were—it's hard to believe they were vegan! I was also thrilled to discover they offered gluten-free waffle cones. The gluten-free cone was perfectly crunchy and held up really well.

Delicious ice cream! The mango sticky rice flavor is amazing.