Ever wondered what hot ice cream tastes like? Tyra Banks' SMiZE & DREAM in Sydney's Darling Harbour brings her American-style ice cream to Australia complete with her signature "Tyra's favourite" flavour, sprinkle cones and the hot ice cream drink. Find out what it is like!
About a year ago, Monica told me that she just walked past SMiZE & DREAM. "Does Tyra Banks have an ice cream shop?" she DMd me. I had literally no idea and for the next year I would hear virtually nothing about SMiZE & DREAM.
It was only recently when they launched their "hot ice cream" that I heard about it again. "Honey, do you want to try some hot ice cream?" I asked Mr NQN. His look of confusion and agreement cemented the deal and on a Saturday afternoon where a chill ran through the spring sunshine, we made our way to SMiZE & DREAM. Smize is the term that Tyra coined, a portmanteau of the words Smile and Eyes, where she urged models to smile with their eyes and not just with their mouth.
Tyra Banks moved to Sydney in late 2023 with her partner Louis Bélanger-Martin and 9 year old son York Banks Asla when she came to create SMiZE & DREAM. This is her first ice cream shop which prompted many in America to wonder why Sydney and why ice cream? On a April 14 episode of Today with Jenna & Friends she told host Jenna Bush Hager that "I just fell in love with it. Every time I went back and went back…the three countries that eat the most ice cream are America, New Zealand and Australia. So I was like, 'I'm happy here and they love to eat some ice cream, so, are we going to do this family?'And we did". The ice cream shop was made in honour of her mother Carolyn and all the sacrifices she made while they were growing up.
The 3,000 square foot shop is located on the ground level on Wheat Road in Darling Harbour. The shop itself is gorgeous and very photogenic - as expected. You don't expect a supermodel and the America's Next Top Model host to have a shabby shop. The staff are very friendly, when one of them sees me waiting, he greets me with a "Welcome to SMiZE & DREAM! How are we today?" with a flourish and a broad smile and then offers some tastings.
There are three sections in which staff can serve people and each have the identical selection which means that everybody is not crowded around the one display. The store is currently decked out in Halloween decorations.
The ice creams are a build yourself sort of affair and you can get anything you want because their motto appears to be, "Make it happen". An American customer walks in and asks for a hot ice cream but with a cone upside down on top. Can they do that? Of course they can. It's definitely an American style of service where anything is possible.
The flavours with the black background are $1 extra per scoop and the ones with the white background are included in the prices. There are around 17 flavours currently and one scoop is $8.50, 2 scoops is $12, 3 is $14.50. They've got a deal if you also want one flavour and one hot ice cream for $19. And the staff are generous with tastes. I try pretty much all of them before deciding on a double scoop with Tyra's favourite and the Dubai Chocolate Bar. All of the flavours are very distinct from each other which I really like and they're very good. Another favourite is the Purple Cookies and Cream with that strong saltiness.
That brings me to the hot ice cream. I had watched Tyra explain what a hot ice cream was with a lot of words but I still was none of the wiser after her explanation. Tyra has described it as "Ice cream that you can drink. And no, I'm not talking about a latte. I'm not talking about hot chocolate that has flavours." Apparently it isn't just melted ice cream and took a lot of testing with almost a year. There's two flavours available: fairy bread and Tyra's favourite. I go for the fairy bread because I love sprinkles.
I get my hot ice cream in a cup. There's whipped cream on top and sprinkles as well as a mini fairy bread sandwich. The hot ice cream is similar to a hot crème anglaise with a tiny bit more graininess or cake batter feel to it. Creme anglaise is the base to French style ice cream. It's rich and it's thick but it's not as sweet or intense as say a hot chocolate. I love the little fairy bread cake which resembles a tiny fairy bread sandwich with sprinkles on top but it's like a tiny brown butter cake or blondie.
The ice cream, on the verge of tipping over, is rich and creamy and this is best tackled by up-ending it and putting it in a cup. I had ordered it with an extra pink dipped chocolate cone with sprinkles which is $2.80 extra plus the two flavours I liked which happened to be premium flavours with the SMiZE surprise ended up at $19.30 for this double cone. "Tyra's Favourite" is made with ribbons of thick salted caramel, butter-roasted pecans in a rich salted sweet cream and it's the saltiness that balances the rich cream and caramel that I really enjoy. I also really enjoy the Dubai style chocolate dark and white chocolate ice cream swirled with pistachio cream and crunchy kataifi and their house made pistachio brittle. The pistachio brittle really ends up taking the Dubai chocolate bar ice cream to the next level. The SMiZE surprise is like cookie dough ball rolled in crumbs adds a bit of texture to the ice cream. It's not strictly necessary but it's just a bit extra on the top.
So tell me Dear Reader, have you ever tried hot ice cream before? What do you think of the idea? And did you know what a Smize was?
This meal was independently paid for.
SMiZE & DREAM
37 Wheat Road, Shop 9 Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
Monday - Wednesday 12 pm — 10 pm
Thursday: 12 pm — 11 pm
Friday and Saturday: 11 am — 11 pm
Sunday: 11 am — 10 pm
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