Confetti Italian Ice & Custard
Yelp called this Costa Mesa ice cream shop the best in California – why?
As a general statement, we don’t put a lot of stock in Yelp reviews: they’re easily, frequently, and systematically manipulated, and even when they’re honest, way too often underinformed or uninformed compared to expert opinions. So when we saw that Confetti Italian Ice & Custard in nearby Costa Mesa was named California’s top Yelp ice cream destination in 2022, we were very surprised, and felt obliged to check it out for ourselves. We weren’t interested in proving or disproving anything – as huge fans of American ice cream, Japanese ice cream, Korean ice cream, Mexican ice cream, and Persian ice cream, our only goal was to see what was so special about Confetti.
One look at Confetti’s website was enough to get us excited about their flavors: blueberry muffin, mint crumb, Nutella almond crunch, and Thai tea immediately went onto our “must-try” list, as we’ve tried and loved similar ice creams at other Orange County dessert shops, and figured these would be ideal comparisons. Unfortunately, literally none of the flavors we came to try were actually available.
Some of the flavors we tried instead, including strawberry mochi, Andes mint, and brownie bites, were quite good. On the other hand, blueberry muffin was replaced by an apple pie that had plenty of fruit and cinnamon flavor but nearly as much ice content. Rocky road was swapped with a chocolate-free version titled salty road. And although espresso was replaced by the better-sounding espresso toffee crunch, there wasn’t any toffee or crunch to be found. Worse yet, each of our multi-scoop cups melted so quickly into mélanges that we could barely enjoy full spoons of a single flavor.
The situation improved somewhat on our second visit: This time, Thai tea and black sesame were both available and excellent, each strongly flavored and this time not melting into other flavors within minutes of delivery. We also tried the lychee Italian ice, which delivered on its promised flavor, and re-enjoyed several of the flavors we’d liked the first time around.
In an ideal world, Confetti’s amazing-sounding collection of flavors would either be available all the time, or currently available scoops would be clearly indicated online so guests could plan their visits. As of the time this is being written, however, Confetti’s website has disappeared, and its social media hasn’t been updated in over a year. That’s one way to solve the problem: Everything just becomes a surprise.
If there was a way to know what’s currently being scooped, we’d go out of our way to visit when interesting flavors were available. But if the idea is now just to take our chances that something appealing will be in the freezer when we show up, there are other ice cream shops we’d visit first – both on flavor selection, and the known quality of their offerings. Wanderlust Creamery has figured out the right way to balance producing, serving, and promoting ice cream in the social media era, so we hope Confetti will do so, too.
Stats
Price: $
Service: Counter
Open Since: 2012
Addresses
1175 Baker St. Suite E22
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
714.545.1175
Instagram: @confettiice