Review: Salt & Straw's 2025 Halloween Ice Creams Are Frightfully Delightful

It's that time of year again, folks — time to bundle up, hunker down with a scary movie (or faux-scary, if frights aren't your thing), and bask in all the cozy glory of the -ber months. And, as is customary anytime a new season rolls around, ice cream behemoth Salt & Straw has a set of flavors to match the festivities. I always love sampling the chain's limited-time offerings; its recent Apple series was one of my favorites to date, and though I wasn't a huge fan of the Farmers Market series, I consider that a fluke. Even its "regular" year-round flavors are extra decadent. So, my bar for the Halloween series was understandably high.

I have to say, the chain covers the full range of fall moods in its lineup. You've got a couple spooky, creepy offerings, a couple that are undeniably cozy, and some that are just straight-up fun. As I typically do when Salt & Straw releases a new lineup, I had to sample the whole thing. Did I love every flavor? No, but I didn't dislike any of them, and I think each will have a certain type of consumer falling head over heels in love with it. 

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

First up was Essence of Ghost, a returning Halloween pint that I hadn't tried in past years. I didn't know what to expect, but it certainly wasn't what I got, and I don't mean that as a bad thing. I could easily get through an entire pint without forming a definitive opinion of the ice cream, but as I ate it, I got a spooky sensation of walking through a graveyard. Can't exactly say I've had that experience with ice cream before. 

If you expected (as I did) that this would be a cookies-and-cream flavored pint due to its color scheme, you'd be woefully wrong. Rather, the black ice cream is a decadent combination of chocolate and licorice flavors, while the white is a vanilla-scotch sherbet. Suffice it to say, there's a lot going on here — it's a bit disorienting, and had me looking for some solid ground to stand on. That said, I strongly suspect that those who like this one will love it. The one downside to this pint is that you have to make sure you get some of each flavor in every bite, as the black ice cream is fairly overwhelming without being balanced by the sherbet. 

If you constantly have pumpkin bread in the oven, this is a flavor you'll simply adore; in fact, I'd probably call this my favorite in the whole series (though the following is a very close second). Jack O' Lantern Pumpkin Bread encompasses everything you love about fall: cozy bakes, pumpkin spice, and decadent, rich frosting on loaves of sweet bread. I didn't intend to take more than a bite, but I accidentally had several. Oops.

The ice cream gets a ton of character just from its pumpkin spice base, which boasts about itself loudly. Even if I just got the base with no mix-ins, I'd be a happy camper — it's heavily spiced, with ginger bringing a sharp edge. The inclusions bring this pint to another level, and coming across a chewy chunk of pumpkin bread is a delightful experience, not to mention the rich oomph supplied by the cream cheese frosting. Even though it's ice cream, it still manages to feel warm and cozy. If you can only choose one pint from the Halloween series, this should be your pick (unless you don't feel like playing it safe, in which case, keep reading).

My second-favorite in this series has to be The Great Candycopia, which I liked far more than I expected I would. I've never been a huge candy fanatic in general, so the idea of a candy-studded ice cream didn't particularly appeal to me, but I quickly changed my tune after having a bite of this bad boy. What swayed me? The ice cream base may have been the deciding factor — being salted butterscotch, it introduces a savory, buttery element that keeps this pint from being too saccharine. 

Still, the candy itself was delightful, and I could tell it had been thoughtfully chosen and incorporated due to the variety of textures it introduced to the dessert. Some candy pieces were chewy, some hard, some crunchy, and still more were light and crispy. That made it easy to differentiate between the multitude of candy pieces present, and it just made for a really fun eating experience that brought me right back to my own childhood days of trick-or-treating. I'd recommend trying this one even if you don't typically have a huge sweet tooth — it's really not at all overwhelming. 

I'm always impressed by Salt & Straw's vegan flavors, and this one (playfully named Double Bubble Toil & Trouble) is no exception. The way the company achieved a bubble gum-esque flavor here is interesting — it used a combination of pineapple, pear, banana, coconut, cinnamon, and vanilla to get a sweet, chewy essence reminiscent of everyone's favorite fruity chewing gum. 

I tasted the banana right away, and though I loathe banana, I didn't mind it. I found the pineapple and coconut milk balanced it well enough to not be too potent. There's nothing subtle about this flavor, either, and I don't think vegans will feel like they're missing out on anything by having this as their only option in the lineup. I will say that this one tasted the least autumnal to me — it brought forward a tropicality reminiscent of summer, but when tasted alongside the other flavors, it became a little more grounded in the season. 

Last but not least, the flavor you've certainly been waiting for, and the one you've absolutely heard of if you know anything about Salt & Straw's Halloween series: Creepy Crawly Critters. Obviously, the name evokes images of bugs, which probably has you wondering how the chain mimics crawling insects in this ice cream. As it turns out, bugs aren't mimicked at all — this pint will have you crunching your way through gobs of real candied crickets and mealworms, all layered lovingly in an earthy matcha ice cream.

I thought I had a stronger stomach than I actually do, apparently. I took a big ol' bite, and something about crunching on what I knew was a bug (though it didn't taste like one) almost had me gagging. Add to that the grassy-flavored ice cream, and I couldn't keep from envisioning myself lapping up piles of bug-laden dirt. Suffice it to say, this flavor was not for me, though those with adventurous taste buds are likely to love it. It's certainly something to try at least once for bragging rights — who wouldn't love being able to say they've eaten bugs?

Salt & Straw's Halloween series encompasses a sweeping variety of flavors, and I really do think there's something for every consumer in this lineup. The Great Candycopia and Jack O' Lantern Pumpkin Bread were absolutely for me (and yes, I realize this means that I favored the most "basic" flavors), but, in true Salt & Straw fashion, the company continually goes the extra mile in concocting pints that will wow even the hardest-to-please consumers. 

If you live near a brick-and-mortar Salt & Straw, you should definitely stop in and sample these before they're gone. If the only option available to you is nationwide shipping, I'd still say it's worth it, particularly if the more adventurous options sound appealing to you. They won't stick around forever (but will likely come around next year), and represent flavor combinations that are admittedly very rare on the ice cream market. So go ahead, munch on a cricket or two — it is spooky season, after all.