Sweet Ritual Weathers the Pandemic With More Products, More Sustainability

Photo by Sprinkles Creative

Ringing in 10 years in the vegan ice cream game, Amelia Raley, owner of Sweet Ritual, still has her fingers in plenty of sundaes, figuratively and the actual treats. With a recent transition away from co-partnership, Raley is realizing an improvement and standardization of her product, all while riding the weird waves of the COVID-19 disruptions to small businesses. She shares her plans with the Chronicle to keep her Austin brand as relevant and beloved as ever, in light of the ballooning trendiness of non-dairy ice creams.

Pondering a formulation of ice cream that would be more scalable than using various bases varying in consistency (sunflower, coconut, soy, etc.), Raley settled this year on a pea base to carry her ice cream into the future. "Looking into the water footprint of bases, I wanted to see if we could use a base that is friendlier to the planet," she explains. "The pea base has a neutral taste and presents fewer allergies – oat is all the rage right now, but we see a lot of sensitivities." In preparation of the switch, Raley conducted tasty R&D in collaboration with Eclipse – a vegan ice cream company out of Berkeley, which ships pints nationwide – scaling up chef-influenced custom creations for use in fine dining restaurants around the country. The result of this work will be a continuation of some old fan favorites, and an expansion into new flavor territory with the full roll-out. Most importantly, the new and improved Sweet Ritual products will be more shelf-stable, more suitable for wholesale and grocery accounts.

Photo by Sprinkles Creative

Raley got her start in 2011 tinkering with ice cream as an employee of the original Toy Joy, and in 2018 turned her focus toward streamlining production to make it friendlier for her staff. Having worked production herself for years, she wanted to make sure the work was sustainable long-term for employees' bodies. Getting a machine to fill pints has been a lifesaver, and also means more pints in more stores around Austin, such as Wheatsville and Fresh Plus, within the next month. "It's a really fun place to be, now that we're not stirring over pots anymore!" she laughed.

After a 50-day shutdown at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sweet Ritual scoop shop on Airport Boulevard reopened for curbside service. Riding out the rest of the season with reduced wholesale business, Raley reached some loyal customers via a re-creation of the scoop shop in Animal Crossing. "It took some scariness out of the pandemic for kids to have a virtual place to go, on their birthday for instance – they just wanted the comfort of something being normal, so we tried to give them that," said Raley.

Sweet Ritual can be found featured at the one-year-old Big Nonna's (Tech Ridge and Parmer), a fun collaboration between Raley and Rob Lordi (Li'l Nonna's), featuring entirely plant based pizzas. And naturally, gelato is coming soon. They paired through a vegan business owner Facebook group, which Raley began a few years back. Another partnership around the corner will see exclusive Sweet Ritual flavors delivered in zero-waste reusable ice cream vessels via Trashless. Formerly known as Lettuce, the Austin company offers a platform for businesses to get their goods into peoples' homes in a zero-waste manner. (Trashless delivers all sorts of products alongside the Sweet Ritual ice cream, including Buddha's Brew kombucha, Easy Tiger baked goods, Rebel Cheese, and more.)

"You know, when we opened in 2011, we were one of the only vegan ice cream shops on the planet, and now the section has blown up!" said Raley. "You can't go to an ice cream shop now without them having a vegan option, and on the shelf in the grocery store, it's a huge section. Our competitors are getting enormous venture capital contributions – it's exciting to be in the non-dairy ice cream world. Still, we couldn't just rest on our basic flavors forever," she explained. "So I've been trying to dream really big about what I want to make in the future, to carry over translatable flavors while reformulating them to feature more artisanal ingredients, such as real rose petals and different types of pistachios for the Pistachio Rose."

Sweet Ritual updates their Instagram page with available scoops, and flavors include delights such as Death Metal by Chocolate, Rocky Road 1929, Peanut Butter Chiffon, Violet Crown (raspberry lemon), Iced Grasshopper (mint coffee chocolate), and Toasted S'mores. Specialties like Unicorn Poop add even more pizzazz, and the shop churns out shakes, ice cream cakes, and a caramelized banana split, too.

Photo by Sprinkles Creative

Raley is also excited to address customer requests for more floral and tea-based flavors. She said, "They're popular right now, and really fun to make!" Also around the corner are plenty of guest collaborations for flavor collections, such as KOOP radio – think Jamaican Gold. "[It's] created by some of the personalities that form the backbone of what Austin is, based on what our community looks like – like a snapshot taste of Austin."

Raley, who spoke at the NICRA (National Ice Cream Retailers Association) convention last year, has come a long way from the friendly toy counter to acting as a leader, and stretching her influence from the local community to nationwide. Though the Sweet Ritual "ice cream school" – a program to help others start their own vegan ice cream businesses – has been on hiatus since 2019, connections made during the program helped usher in some fellow non-dairy ice cream stars. Raley opened up her facility to fledgling businesses like Luv Fats (avocado- and coconut-based ice cream) and Funky Mello (fun, plant-based marshmallow fluff) to help them begin carving out their own niche within the Austin market.

Looking forward, Raley would like to open two more scoop shops, and to be sourcing as much as she can locally. But taking over the world simply isn't her end goal. "Our name comes from the ritualistic way people approach desserts," she explained. "Once I started working with sweets I saw how people would come in after therapy, an orthodontist appointment, with an A on their report card. People are either there to make a good day better or turn a bad day around. It's seldom that they're there on accident."

"We really want to grow deep roots here in Central Texas. I've seen the same people go from [their] first date to seeing their families grow up," Raley said. "One couple recently bought a house and wanted one of our cakes to be the first thing in their freezer! I had no idea an ice cream shop was such a special place for so many people, that 'of the neighborhood' feeling."

Sweet Ritual Scoop Shop