Tara Esperanza, 120 Flavors of Organic Ice Cream

Name: Tara Esperanza

Age: 38

Occupation: Owner of Tara’s Organic Ice Cream

How did it get started? I started the company in 2005. The initial motivation was I wanted organic, and I started making ice cream at home for my family. I wanted more interesting flavors than what I could find. This was in the late ‘90s, and there weren’t as many options as there are now. It was pretty boring. There were a few organic companies, but they were pretty basic – you know, vanilla, mint, strawberry. I was interested in basil and white pepper chocolate chip. I had ideas of other things. I just started making it at home. It kind of turned into an underground business in my town, and then I decided to make it a real business when I realized there were other people interested.

Where did it start? In Sante Fe, New Mexico.

Is that where you are from? I’m from Boston, but I lived there for 13 years. We moved here in 2008, to get closer to our resources.

The farms? We were using dairy from Marin, and a lot of ingredients were coming from here, (like) cups and spoons – everything was being sent over from San Francisco. It just seemed like in terms of our ethics and approach to business the most logical decision.

Do you miss the weather? I miss some things. It was really beautiful and blue skies, but I don’t miss winter.

What are your favorite flavors? (laughs) I make about 120 flavors and they’re all my babies. I go through phases. Every day we make new flavors, and the flavors change in the shop daily. It depends. There are some I get really excited about, the ones that I get to make less often…

What’s an example? Chocolate tarragon or lemon verbena, some of the herbs are not available all the time. Goat cheese blueberry, goat cheese raspberry or truffle pear, some matcha – it’s very high quality Japanese matcha –  I make that very sparingly.