SPRINKLE JOY
Hoppen Hierarchy: ★★★⭑
District: Papillion
Frozen Custard Shop
Perfect For: Baked Goods
Standout Dishes: Mint to Be; Cuckoo for Cocoa; Cookie & Creme Brulee
What makes custard different from ice cream?
It’s a question that Hannah Sheffield, the owner of Sprinkle Joy, has answered hundreds, if not thousands, of times. But she’s happy to break it down for every customer that asks, breaking it down to four main components. Custard:
- Uses egg yolks
- Has a higher butterfat content than ice cream
- Is served at a higher temperature
- Is less whipped and has less air
These combine to give custard a richer, more luscious mouthfeel and a denser, creamier texture. Sprinkle Joy’s custard exemplifies the best of these traits—it combines the soft texture of soft serve ice cream with the richness of hard serve to create a one-of-a-kind product.
Sheffield has fond memories of enjoying custard with her family growing up in Kansas, and that nostalgia motivated her to start her custard business, The Sweet Life, in Georgia. But when her active duty military husband was transferred to Omaha in late 2024, she was faced with a choice: restart the business in a new city or let the dream go.
Her love for custard was too strong at this point. She rebranded as Sprinkle Joy, opened her shop off 96th & Giles, and hoped Omaha would love the product like her old patrons did.
Sprinkle Joy offers two custard flavors—an aromatic, sweet vanilla and a deep, cocoa-forward chocolate. The shop offers a host of toppings, from scratch made caramel, brownie bites, and hot fudge to popular candies, fruits, nuts, and pretzels. These can be ordered as a sundae (placed on top) or a mixer (mixed in with a machine).
While the cups are fully customizable, Sprinkle Joy also has a menu of 6 house favorites. Among the most popular is the Cuckoo for Cocoa, a chocolate lovers dream that beautifully combines the richness of chocolate with the milky smoothness of custard. Hot fudge and scratch made brownies are woven into chocolate custard, creating a cup even Count Chocula’s palate would be satisfied with.
Mint lovers will fall head over heels for the Mint to Be. Vanilla and chocolate custard are mixed together with hot fudge, and diced-up Andes mints provide that cooling refreshing taste along with pops of texture.
The Sprinkle Yum is a play on chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, but without the chocolate. Instead, it’s filled with chunks of sweet, chewy sugar cookies and a hurricane of crunchy sprinkles.
The Cookies & Creme Brûlée brings together a combination not often seen—Oreos and caramel. But the cookies—whose shell is softened to a pleasant chewiness when mixed into the milky custard–combines with the rich, sweet caramel to craft a flavor that’s oddly reminiscent of creme brûlée, minus the sugary shell.
But you don’t need a house favorite to enjoy Sprinkle Joy. Whatever toppings you order, you can be assured your frozen treat will be swimming in them. The employees are exceedingly friendly and, even when the lines are long, orders are fulfilled very quickly.
Sprinkle Joy’s prices are a bit higher than you’ll find at chains like Dairy Queen or Cold Stone, but the quality is unmatched. In fact, there’s a Culver’s right across the street from Sprinkle Joy. On one evening as we left, the drive-thru at Culver’s was 10 cars deep. While I have great admiration for Culver’s product, I couldn’t help but think what those people were missing just across the street.