Churn2 Superior Ice Cream

3 years of chemistry and I still didn’t realize that this place was making liquid nitrogen ice cream to order until I watched them fire up the canister. How stupid am I? ChurN2, I get it now…
Anyway, I don’t want to get down on a place that’s trying to do something cool and new… but «superior»? Not sure about that…
If you’ve never had liquid nitrogen ice cream before, you’ll notice that it has a crazy smooth mouthfeel. Since the nitrogen freezes the ice cream really quickly, there’s no time for big ugly ice crystals to form.
However, something that’s nice about a (good quality) traditional ice cream is that the richness makes the ice cream slightly chewy, for lack of a better word. When that’s not there, as with Churn2’s ice cream, you remember that you’re just eating sweetened cream. It pretty much dissolves in your mouth, which sounds like it might be nice but is kind of disappointing :(
I got caramel apple, which took the form of apple chunks mixed into the ice cream and caramel sauce on top. The chunks got frozen solid and thus didn’t impart any flavor, so I don’t know who thought that one through… the sauce was good, though.
You should try this place out if you somehow made it out of science class without trying liquid nitrogen ice cream. It’s $ 5.25 for a small (one scoop), which is a decent price to pay for a new experience, but not a good price for mediocre ice cream. I might come back to try some of the other flavors, but it will be hard with Ben and Jerry’s a few blocks away!

I agree with someone above. It’s quite tasteless. Any flavor, and it’s not much, comes only from the mixed in ingredients. Plus, it’s crazy expensive.

We happened upon this place yesterday walking through Harvard Sq. and decided to try it out. While the technique is certainly cool, the ice cream had absolutely NO flavor. My husband — an ice cream fanatic– couldn’t even finish it because it had no taste. That NEVER happens. Won’t go here again, sorry.

This place is called churn 2 cause they literally churn just two flavors at a time. When I went it was peanut butter and the other flavor was cinnamon roll. Wasn’t sold by the sample of peanut butter so I went with the cinnamon roll. I was expecting something more cloyingly sweet and heavy handed with cinnamon but it was surprisingly light. Wasn’t blown away but nonetheless ill be back to try out other flavors!

I finally tried Churn2 today. Sorry, but it just wasn’t very good. I tried the mango/​strawberry flavor, which tasted of neither. I could see that there were mangoes on the counter, but I don’t think many of them made it into the final product. It just tasted like an average vanilla ice cream. It was especially disappointing that it was so unremarkable, given that it’s silly expensive. After two tastes, I threw the rest away.

I had heard about Churn ice cream sometime last year and its two coolness factors — 1^st that they use liquid nitrogen to make their ice cream (science geeky stuff — yeah!), and 2^nd that they are housed in a shipping container. However, I had absolutely no idea where they were located, and I do not oft find myself in the Harvard Square region of things.
One day, however, I found myself traipsing through Harvard University in an attempt to follow the Google Map directions from the subway to Tony Maws’ establishment, Kirkland Tap & Trotter. And what to my wondering eyes should appear? But a neat box standing before a neat cluster of umbrella protected tables and chairs by the Harvard University Science Center, close by where Oxford St and Kirkland St meet. A wonderful leisurely spot (spoken from the perspective of a non-​student).
Eureka!
We headed back that a ways lickety-​split once our bellies were fillied, after all, there’s a whole different tummy for dessert dontcha know!
But it was 8:07pm, and it looked like they were (literally) closing up shop… with one fellow in the process of pulling down the final wall, I commented aloud that I guess they close at 8pm, and bummer, since Churn was the only reason we had come here. He inquired within, and the top gun called out from inside the box that she had some ice cream, partially melted, that she could give us, so the two youths outside paused midstream in their end of day procedures. How nice!
She handed us a small cup of their Peanut Butter Crunch (normally $ 5.25 for a small, $ 6.25 for a regular) with two gelato style spoons and several peanut butter cup candies tossed on top. Presentation to the very end!
It was creamy and delicious a treat — not too sweet, though the peanut butter chips tucked within were nice little surprises, adding contrast in both sweetness levels and textures.
CHURN2 (N2, get it?) apparently offers two flavors daily, with the second flavor, Strawberry Mint, sounding quite tempting to my cohort. But beggars can’t be choosers and we were indeed quite grateful for their kindness to us.
A terrific end to a terrific night!

Churn2 has been open for some time — I’ve been skimming their flavor list for some time, but have hesitated given the price point (5.25 for small, 6.25 for regular). But then I saw pecan pie (my weakness) on the list, so I stopped by. The folks are really friendly, and I got a regular pecan pie.
Upon ordering, I watched as the mixers made the ice cream to order with the liquid nitrogen (!), and that was just as cool as the concept of using a storage crate for this business. The ice cream was great — thick, creamy, though not as chewy textured as Tosci’s or Herrell’s (for those of you who prefer that style). And yes, they blended real pecan pie in the ice cream for just the right amount of flavor. Portion wise, my regular order was slightly larger than a small at other ice cream places; however, It was really rich, so it was actually pretty difficult to finish. A small would be sufficient, but you do get ~30% more for a dollar extra — I might try to split a regular with a friend next time.
Ultimately, Churn2 is a great addition (and a close second to Tosci’s for being my favorite ice cream place around), but may be a rarer treat for me given that you do have to wait a while for the ice cream to be made. Really looking forward to seeing what else is coming. (PS. Can you make an eggnog flavor sometime in the winter? EDIT: they’re closed for the season!)