Dere’s A New Ice Cream Shop In Town: Interview With tsun scoops!
On May 30th, a now viral tweet from @kellyonelani on Twitter shot the ice cream shop tsun scoops into the forefront of anitwitter’s attention. That tweet featured above shows off the ensemble of anime related puns that make up the flavors now available at the store, located in Garden Grove, CA. As you may have picked up from my previous articles, I love anime and I love food, so I was inspired to seek out the owner and learn more about the awesome company. I got in touch with Huy, the founder and owner of tsun scoops to get, well, the scoop!
According to Huy, tsun scoops began as retail with the various charms, stickers, and clothing featured in their shop right now, as well as an adorable dakimakura featuring characters Cream-Chan and Iyo.
This is an Iyo stan blog.
tsun scoops was originally conceptualized as an ice cream truck, but Huy decided to change the idea to a brick and mortar shop after he “accepted that [he] was a terrible driver”. Having lived in Garden Grove as a child, he decided to open up shop in the familiar city.
Huy took inspiration from a lot of classic anime in creating tsun scoops,
“The Haruhi Suzumiya series has definitely been an inspiration for some of the dynamics and personalities of our characters. Of course the big three (Bleach, One Piece and Naruto) lead me to making our main manga a battle shonen. And finally Evangelion and Gurren Lagann played a part in our mecha sized cups!”
The tsun scoops manga that Cream-Chan and co appear in is a collaborative effort between Huy and mangaka @kukuruyuk_studio on Instagram. Two chapters are available online now that chronicle the origin stories of Cream-Chan and General Galaye, her mentor, with more chapters expected in the future. There are also some 4koma panels created by Song, a friend of Huys, that riff off of common anime tropes like isekai and the tsundere archetype. Huy is also currently working with more mangaka to create backstories for all of tsun scoops characters as well. Inspired by tsun scoops many flavors and dere archetypes, Cream-Chan’s crew consists of the former “Orange Assassin” Iyo, the ocean-obsessed Sang, and the “Cookie Dough Chemist” Kijita-kun. All of the characters in the tsun scoops lore are inspired by the flavors they create! You can read the currently released chapters and 4koma here.
Speaking of their flavors, tsun scoops has a lot of different delights to choose from. There are two categories for their flavors: the “dere” premium milk based ice creams like Super Sugoi Salt, a sea salt flavor inspired by the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and the “tsun” dairy free flavors like The Meloncholy of Honeyhi Dewzumiya, a honeydew flavored ice cream named after the Haruhi Suzumiya series. These two flavors are Huy’s personal favorites, so you should definitely try them when you stop by!
Their menu is revolving, sometimes even switching up in the same day to provide fresh products and inciting flavors, benefits of having all their product made in-house. The punny names like uwube and Bubble Gambatte are concocted by members of the tsun scoops team, and for holidays there are special limited edition flavors. The team is working on expanding the menu to bring their customers more amazing options. You are always bound to find something new and tasty at tsun scoops!
The store has a soft opening on April 10th, with their official grand opening on May 22nd. They made it into a big event, giveaways, live performances, and grab bags for people who came in cosplay. There were even a few people who cosplayed tsun scoops characters!
Amara as Cream-Chan and Reno as Sang
Far left: Sean as Kijita-kun,
Far right: Skitzzle as Cream-Chan
The inside of the store is covered wall to wall with pictures of Cream-Chan and her friends, and it’s best wall is absolutely the Sang kabedon wall.
Far right: Marisa Mockery
Opening the store during the pandemic was more difficult that it normally would’ve been with COVID tightening food safety regulations. However tsun scoops persevered and are definitely thriving! Huy shared that he is blown away by the response the store has gotten from the anime community, especially seeing people cosplaying his original characters. The goal when creating tsun scoops was actually to give back to the anime community: “I wanted to create a place where fans and friends could drop by and enjoy themselves! Seeing people laugh and enjoy our cringe puns and vibe to anime openings in our shop has been an absolute joy.”
Kelly, the author of the tweet that put tsun scoops on the map, actually made it out to the store herself and met Huy! According to him, the tweet has brought a lot more traffic both online and in store which he is very grateful for.
Huy is really thankful for all the new and returning customers: “Without our fans and the community, tsun scoops wouldn’t exist. We truly appreciate each and every one of you and we’re going to keep doing our best!”
With both a five-star rating on both Yelp and Google, it looks like they really are doing their best! I’m definitely planning to make the drive once I’m able to, and if you live in the OC area, you should too!