Hi Caitlin!  Can you tell us about Pint’s Peak Ice Cream here in Denver? 

What special flavors do you have coming up for the holidays? Can you tell us about those Apple Cider Donuts? 

• We have so many fun flavors for Thanksgiving! To start, we created a special Pie Pairing series – 4 chef crafted ice cream flavors developed to pair perfectly with Thanksgiving pies, pastries, and desserts – including Sour Cream Vanilla, Whiskey Dulce, Salted Caramel Clove, and Honeycomb Vanilla. We also have a couple signature flavors and our much-loved Apple Cider Donuts. These donuts are everywhere back east and I noticed they were super hard to find here in Denver, so we decided to make them. They’ve become insanely popular too – a baked (not fried) cake style donut made with local apple cider, coated in cinnamon sugar. They’re a delight.

• Get the orders in now while you can!! We’ll have limited pints available for walk-up orders. We’re closing pre-orders on 11/18, pickups will be from our kitchen at 675 S Broadway on 11/22 5pm-8pm.

• We also  offer private catering and have packages including donuts, hot cider, and hot cocoa in addition to ice cream for the cold months.

• During this December holiday season we have even more new flavors in store including an entire series inspired by the movie Elf, plus our holiday confections including ice cream sauces, marshmallows, honeycomb candy, and more!

Where are you located? / Where can we find you every month? 

• During the summer we had a regular spot on South Pearl Street in the Platte Park neighborhood. We’ve always had a great following there, it was a natural decision. Now that we’re going into the fall and winter we might have a new home and we post our weekly schedule on where to find us. We’re mobile after all so we move around!

Are you from Colorado? Which neighborhood did you eventually choose to call home?

What challenges have you experienced on your journey? 

• Any startup – especially a bootstrapped one – will tell you there are constant challenges and constant problem-solving in a new business. Starting in Covid, we’ve had to pivot several times as consumers’ buying behaviors changed drastically and rapidly in the last couple of years. We started with an online-only pre-order model, pivoted to wholesale, pivoted to farmers markets, and this year we launched our ice cream truck. We’ve watched inflation rise an incredible amount while putting out a high quality product, as a small producer we don’t have much buying power and still want to keep pricing as accessible as possible. Another huge challenge in Denver is the lack of commercial kitchen space and very high cost of real estate, and overhead continues to rise.

What accomplishments do you want Denver to know about?  

• Mostly I’m very proud of how far we’ve come with what we had to start with. I actually did some of the build-out of our ice cream truck myself and every time I’m working on it I get a little sense of pride knowing that I helped drill in the walls and put in the paneling. I’m also extremely proud of the fact that just one year after I launched, I was a vendor for the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen 2021. This is such a coveted and prestigious event, I was deeply honored to have been selected.

What do you love to do in Denver outside of your business? Any nature spots / or other businesses you’d like to shout out? You Swing Dance and Power-lift?! 

• Hah, I do! The business has been pretty all-consuming since I started it so it’s been challenging to find time for life outside of it. Whenever I can, I’ll do quick getaways to the mountains – finally just made it down to the stunning Telluride and Ouray recently – I consistently powerlift still, and try to get a dance in when I can.

How would you describe the Personality or “Vibe” of Denver?  

• Laid back and chill yet adventurous.