[NYC - Soho] Soft Swerve - Soft serve ice cream (purple sweet potato and lychee)

Soft Swerve in Soho is one of the go-to shops for unique flavors and toppings, including this ube (purple yam) treat.

Soft serve ice cream has become a big thing these days...maybe because it's so darn Instagrammable?

This place always has a line. The marketing team at Soft Swerve must work overdrive getting all the key influencers to post pics of their treats (that's how I read about it earlier this year as I was sitting in my apartment in Seoul, eating my Dwaeji Bar ice cream.


I knew I had to get the purple ube soft serve. It had been a while since I had my Cafe Bora purple sweet potato ice cream experience, but not long enough that I couldn't remember the flavor and the experience.

My friend opted to get the new Lychee flavor (they have a rotating schedule for one of the flavors, they typically have the ube, matcha, and macapuno (coconut) flavors).

Also BONUS: If you check in on Yelp, you get a free waffle chip (I obviously forgot in the short wait...but next time!)

You can choose to make your own or else choose one of the pre-designed specialty creations. I went with the Broadway, obviously because I wanted to relive childhood.

The lychee flavor was subtle and fragrant and the texture was nice and smooth/creamy. It was definitely a refreshing couple bites I had.

My Broadway was completely different! If you haven't had sweet potato ice cream before, I'll try and describe it to the best of my abilities. It has a deep, yet mellow flavor. The Soft Swerve ube is slightly sweeter than the one I had at Cafe Bora, like it seems like they may use sweet cream as a base instead of milk. Additionally, the texture is REALLY SMOOTH, which I totally love.

The Cafe Bora purple sweet potato ice cream seems kind of more homemade, if that makes sense. It's not quite as smooth and seems slightly more gritty (?). However, the flavor at Cafe Bora (at least the original Seoul locations, I cannot attest to the LA location) seems much more natural and like there's less added sugar.

However, maybe it's just a me thing, or a mental thing, I always feel like I'm eating like 5 sweet potatoes as I eat it and end up going away feeling SUPER DUPER full.

The cereal and marshmallow bits did add a bit of texture dimension to the ice cream, adding a bit of variety to it never hurts. I honestly am not sure if I could have finished a dish of it without the toppings. It was getting to be A LOT by the halfway point, luckily my friend and her boyfriend helped eat it...otherwise, I'm sure I'd still be there on the sidewalk eating away at my ice cream. That being said, if I make it back there, I'd probably do a SMALL and re-create the specialty creation on my own, but in a more manageable size, unless someone else in my party was all in on sharing one of the special creations.

I'd also be totally ready to get one of the rotating seasonal flavors next time...I may be done with purple sweet potatoes for another 8 months.

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