Ice Cream for Positive Change Ice Cream for Positive Change The Scoop on Coolhaus

Natasha Case and Freya Estreller of artisan ice cream company Coolhaus are on a mission… to empower the next generation of diverse entrepreneurs and creators to live out their dreams by using their unique and innovative brand as a platform for change.

By Laura Petersen

Started as an art project in 2009, this dynamic duo didn’t feel represented by dessert brands commonly found on shelves… not as Millennials, not as women or more specifically LGBTQ+ women. So, they decided to be the brand that they wanted to buy.

Coolhaus first went viral when they showed up to Coachella Music Festival in a run-down postal van found on Craigslist for $2,500, using a AAA platinum membership and a free 200mile tow.

Now, Coolhaus is the top womenled ice cream company in the nation with sammies, cones, pints and cups (in dairy and dairy-free!) on freezer shelves in 6,000 grocery stores across the country (including BriarPatch). Look for these flavors at the Coop, while supplies last — Cookies & Cream, Cookie Dough, Dirty Mint Chip and Dairy Free Vanilla. In 2022, the company donated 100 Ice Cream Sammies to BriarPatch for our community Pride on the Patio event.

Freya’s childhood meals were a mishmash of her Filipino and Chinese heritage. She remembers making her first ice cream sandwich as a kid — putting blocks of Neapolitan between two slices of Wonder Bread. Today, her savory palate is the driving force behind flavors like Peking Duck and tangy, sweet and sour Balsamic Fig Mascarpone.

Recalling a childhood where health food ruled, Natasha’s early exposure to desserts consisted of low-fat ice cream and uncool carrot cakes. The daughter of an architect and Berkeley-bred cartoon animator, she is still grateful to her East Coast relatives for introducing her to the joy of full-fat ice cream.

Natasha (an architect intraining) and Freya (a project manager for an affordable housing development) created Coolhaus almost as an act of rebellion in the face of their budding adult occupations.

The name Coolhaus is a play on Bauhaus and a triple entendre to the influential modernist design movement of the 1920s and 1930s, the famous Dutch architect and theorist who challenged the mantra “form follows function” and the idea that an ice cream sandwich is a “Cool House.” Learn more and follow at https://cool.haus.

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