We’re already a couple weeks into Pride Month in the US, which means by now we've seen quite a few restaurants introducing rainbow-themed menu items to help celebrate and raise awareness. McDonald's has given its French fry containers the rainbow treatment, and Starbucks announced a couple new vibrant drinks. Even smaller chains are getting in on the Pride action, like Salt & Straw, an ice cream shop originally based in Portland. The scoop shop recently announced that it created a new flavour called Skittles Rainbow Sherbet in honour of Pride Month.
Since opening its first shop in Portland in 2011, Salt & Straw Ice Cream has expanded to locations in Los Angeles and San Fransisco. This month, the small west coast chain will be bringing its Pride flavor to each city. A Salt & Straw rep told us that the special Skittles Rainbow Sherbet flavor took quite a bit of intricate work to create. First, hundreds of pounds of Skittles were hand-sorted by colour. Then, a different shade of sherbet was mixed individually with each color of Skittles to ensure the colors remained in tact. Finally, the multicolour sherbets were layered together to create a rainbow. According to Salt & Straw, "Every scoop is an irresistible swirl of red, orange, yellow, green, and purple fruit." The Pride flavor will be available in Portland and San Francisco during the respective citywide Pride festivals, so folks in both cities should be on the lookout for the colourful sweet treat.
Salt & Sugar is giving proceeds from the Skittles Rainbow Sherbet to local equal rights organizations. According to the ice cream shop's Instagram account, the Pride flavor was available in L.A. over the weekend during the city's festival, and proceeds went to The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organisation that focuses on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth. Skittles Rainbow Sherbet will be available in Portland this weekend and will benefit Basic Rights Oregon. Salt & Straw says the flavor was "created to spread a message of love and support to the LGBTQ communities in our neighbourhoods and across the nation." So far it seems Skittles Rainbow Sherbet is doing just that.