A Sweet Return: Melba Reopens with New Flavors and Community Spirit

A new term means making new memories. What better way is there to do that than grabbing an ice cream cone with friends? Located on Main Street, Melba Ice Creamery (Melba) has always been the go-to place for an icy, sweet treat! This Friday, April 11, Melba will officially reopen after the long winter months of paused business. Preparing for the store’s reopening is no easy task, and Joanne Canady-Brown—the owner of both Melba and The Gingered Peach—and her team are hard at work to make sure Melba gets a  picture-perfect return. 

While working on the preparations for the reopening of Melba, Canady-Brown explained  it was especially difficult to get the perfect texture and taste that Melba’s team strives for. During the months that Melba was closed, Canady-Brown was developing and experimenting with new flavors every day. When creating new flavors, she had to think about the science behind ice cream-making constantly. For example, when making vegan ice cream, she had to perfect a dairy-free treat with  an ice cream-like texture rather than that of sorbet. When making fruity ice creams, she had to understand how the fats present in the milk and heavy cream would bond with fruits that naturally contain water. Additionally, she must consider that the different sugar contents of various flavors of ice cream affect the freezing point, in turn impacting the ice cream’s texture. Canady-Brown added that the balance of acidity was crucial because certain flavors with acidic fruits had to taste acidic while other ice creams with similar ingredients should not. Although developing the flavors was the most stressful part of reopening, Canady-Brown said that it was the process she and her team enjoyed the most because “working with food [is] a creative field.”

Although she could not reveal the exact flavors, she gave some hints, stating that the new menu would be balanced, and it would not have a common theme, as she tried to “create flavors tailored to everyone.” She also noted the list of flavours includes those for students alongside “adult flavors”. She added that customers would see a greater Asian influence on the new menu, as well as seasonal-influenced flavors. Canady-Brown assured us the “heavy hitters, like Moon Rocks,” would remain on the menu. She also stated that Melba would be collaborating with other local food stores, as Canady-Brown wanted to highlight other businesses through ice cream.

The Lawrenceville community’s love and support has been an important aspect of Melba’s success. Canady-Brown said the “heartbeat of Melba and The Gingered Peach is the Lawrenceville community.” As a community, we’ve shown her support when she “started from nothing and were fully invested in her success.” In turn, she announced her dedication to  “give back to the community.” In part, she does this by donating any ice cream which hasn’t been sold within two weeks to a local soup kitchen, which doubles as waste prevention. She said that “Lawrenceville is everything to us, this is everything to us.”

Canady-Brown and her team’s main mission was to “make ice cream that tastes good.” However, over the past two years, Melba’s focus has evolved to listening to what the customers want. Canady-Brown asked the community what flavors they wanted to see and looked at the demographic of the community, creating ice creams curated toward different cultures. She also sourced organic and high-quality ingredients to make the ice cream in-house at affordable prices. 

Members of the Lawrenceville community should drop by Melba on reopening day to try the new flavors they have to offer, although the line will certainly stretch out the door!