From The Charmery’s Banana Lemon Curd to Taharka Bros. Matcha Mochi, ice cream is getting a glow-up in Baltimore. Mishmish, a small-batch ice-cream maker that does events and pop-ups at Bird in Hand in Charles Village, pushes the boundaries even further with one-of-a-kind flavors like Chai Karak and Toasted Sourdough.

Founded by Cedric Al Kazzi and Ross Hatton, the business has truly been a labor of love. Al Kazzi bought an ice-cream maker as a birthday gift for Hatton, a Culinary Institute of America grad who worked at the famed Blackberry Farm in Tennessee. Hatton was more than eager to get creative in the kitchen.

“I’ve worked with a lot of really innovative chefs,” he says. “They’ve exposed me to incredible flavors and pairings.”

Ice-cream sandwiches are one of Al Kazzi’s favorite sweets. “Making ice-cream sandwiches was a gesture of love,” says Hatton who has also been inspired to create flavors drawn from his husband’s Beirut background. “We weren’t even thinking about a business.”

Nevertheless, what started as a way to impress family and friends soon grew into a full-fledged business named after their Bernese mountain dog, Mishmish.

A year or so ago, Al Kazzi brought a batch of home-made ice-cream sandwiches, including chai and corn, to a work event for his day job as an architect at Gensler & Associates. Based on the reaction, “We thought maybe this could be something,” he says.

Ice cream is a great canvas for creativity, says Hatton, an assistant professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine.

“It’s inherently nostalgic and goes back to summer days when we put those wooden spoons under the lids of Styrofoam cups. We asked oursevles, ‘How do we take something nostalgic and universal and capture diverse flavor and culture and reimagine it in a way that people haven’t had before?’”