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Try unique ice cream flavors at Heidi’s Shop in Albuquerque

Try unique ice cream flavors at Heidi’s Shop in Albuquerque
Posted on | Posted on Jasper

IN FRONT OF HEIDI’S ICE CREAM PARLOR, in Albuquerque, a line waits impatiently for a glimpse of the glass case filled with Brown Butter Piñon, Lavender Lemon Sorbet, Adobe Road (chocolate with red chili marshmallow and candied pecans) and other tantalizing flavors. The shop, which opened last year, is located behind a tiny fenced-in garden that is part of Heidi’s Jam Factory.

“I’m a huge ice cream lover,” says Dimitri Eleftheriou, the 36-year-old son of Heidi’s Raspberry Farm founder Heidi Eleftheriou. The former restaurant chef and his team have created more than 40 flavors in just a short time. “I really wanted to create something of my own,” he says.

Eleftheriou grew up in Corrales, where his mother made jam with raspberries from the family farm. He helped her sell Heidi’s raspberry jam at the Corrales and Santa Fe farmers markets before studying culinary arts at Le Cordon Bleu in San Francisco. An apprenticeship at the legendary Chez Panisse eventually led him to work in restaurants in the Bay Area for 10 years, before moving to New Mexico in 2016.

One bag contains matcha mint chips, adobe road, earl grey and strawberry.
Photo courtesy of Nate Wahlroos.

“I came home to help my mother,” he says. She had recently bought the jam factory building and the company was expanding. “I still wanted to work with food, but not in the catering industry,” he adds.

Now, as his mother prepares to retire, Eleftheriou is putting his stamp on Heidi’s empire. He takes a chef-like approach to the ice cream parlor’s flavors and treats, experimenting with unusual combinations like beetroot and ginger and collecting spruce tips for one flavor in the Sandía Mountains last year with his fiancée Celestina Mancha.

Of course, fruit is an ingredient in some of Eleftheriou’s ice cream flavors, like raspberry and apricot chamomile. He’s also invented fun extras, like four-flavor ice cream flights and the Triple Coffee Float—cold brewed coffee poured over coffee ice cream and topped with an espresso cream. Occasionally, pop-ups are on the menu that combine Greek cuisine and other dishes from local chefs with Heidi’s ice cream.

Raspberry sorbet is garnished with Heidi’s raspberry jam and raspberry meringue.

Photo courtesy of Nate Wahlroos.

In addition to opening the ice cream shop, he also recently launched Heidi’s Edibles, a separate line of THC-infused jams and gummy bears called “jammies” that are available at licensed dispensaries in New Mexico.

“I’ve always been very interested in cannabis,” he says. “I feel like there’s a gap in the market for high-quality foods without high fructose corn syrup and food coloring.”

More plans are in the pipeline, including the potential for expansion. “When I hear all the positive feedback from our customers,” says Eleftheriou, “I really think we need to offer more locations.” Just don’t try to pin him down to a favorite flavor. “We don’t have A “The best ice cream,” he says. “They’re all incredible.”

Read more: These freezer artisans show off wild flavors, crazy toppings, and weird science.

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