In celebration of its eighth anniversary and 414 Day, Purple Door Ice Cream launched a brand-new flavor Sunday. Purple Moon, Purple Door’s version of the classic blue moon ice cream, was handed out in free miniature cones to guests that came in all day at both of the Purple Door scoop shop locations, Walker’s Point and Sherman Phoenix.
A celebration of the new flavor will continue Friday with a “Full Moon Party” coinciding with the actual full moon. According to the press release, the party will take place from noon to 10 p.m. at Purple Door’s Walker’s Point location, 205 S. 2nd St., and will feature free Purple Moon mini cones, hourly raffle prizes and specials featuring Purple Moon ice cream, including a Purple Moon sundae with rock candy, a Pop Rocks soda with Purple Moon and Purple Moon ice cream sandwiches, which have sprinkles rolled on the side and are “super cute (and) super Instagram-able,” Cunningham said.
Purple Moon will be available at both locations for the rest of the spring and summer season, Purple Door co-owner Lauren Schultz said in an email. It can also be found in pint containers at grocery stores around Milwaukee and other local stores that carry Purple Door pints. Some shops that sell Purple Door ice cream, like Indulgence, Anodyne and 5Points in Waukesha, will add Purple Moon to their menu, “at least for the near future,” Schultz said.
Customers have been requesting blue moon ice cream from Purple Door for years, according to a Purple Door press release.
“A lot of times we have people come in and they ask for Superman or blue moon and flavors like that. … Traditionally they’re good and they’re popular, but they’re all artificial flavoring and they’re all artificial coloring,” Megan Cunningham, retail manager of Purple Door, said. “We don’t do anything like that. We are all natural and we don’t use any colorings in our ice creams, so we never really had that option.”
The ice cream is free of artificial colors and flavors, and its purple hue comes from a mixture of berries, Cunningham said.
Purple Door’s flyer advertising the new flavor calls Purple Moon “A Purple Door Twist on a Midwest Classic.” The twist refers to the ice cream’s color and use of exclusively natural ingredients. Purple Moon was created following Purple Door’s custom of using the most natural, local ingredients possible.
Purple Door creates its own ice cream at its shop. Cunningham said the process of creating Purple Moon took a few months, more than 20 tries and a bit of research.
“The history of Blue Moon itself is kind of mysterious because no one knows who really made it, no one really knows what it officially was because every different ice cream shop made it a little differently,” Cunningham said. In researching the ice cream, she said she discovered that the first blue moon ice cream is believed to have originated in Milwaukee.
The ice cream makers at Purple Door originally tried to achieve a purple hue through using ube, a purple yam popular in the Phillipines and Thailand, Cunningham said. It produced a vibrant color, but they had a difficult time getting ahold of the yam. They also tried getting the purple color through beets, but settled on a berry mixture.
The final ice cream has “hints of almond and citrus,” according to the press release.
Ice cream sandwiches of the new flavor are now being sold at the Walker’s Point Purple Door location and various other shops including Wyeast Pizza, Downer Theater and South Shore Beer Garden. A Purple Moon ice cream sandwich pairs the purple ice cream with sugar cookies from Sugar and Flour bakery in Greendale, Wisconsin, Schultz said in an email.
With its natural ingredients, unique flavors and in-house creation of ice cream and waffle cones, Purple Door has become a staple for residents and students living in Milwaukee.