Exciting Ice Cream: Phagomania

We put a brave face on a summer without vanilla, and take an international look at some exciting and terrifying ice cream flavours.

Feature by Lewis MacDonald | 10 May 2016

Summer is under threat, and not just from the fact that there's a hailstorm outside as we write this. The classic summer staple of vanilla ice cream could be in trouble, due to a global vanilla shortage via a poor crop of Madagascan beans. It looks like we will be forced to expand our thoughts on what flavour ice cream can be, regardless of whether the sun ever comes out again.

Crocodile eggs and Japanese ice cream

We'll start with a straightforward change: crocodile egg ice cream. Hailing from Sweet Spot Artisan Ice Cream in Davo City, Philippines, the low-cholesterol, high-protein and ethically-sourced egg choice replaces traditional chicken eggs in the recipe. This reportedly gives a much richer result but feels unlikely to be snapped up with a name like 'crocodile egg ice cream', and it doesn't really solve that whole vanilla problem.

We’ve come to expect big things from Japan over the history of this column, and their ice cream selection does not disappoint. Sweet potato? Yes. Cactus? Go on. Pretty much any type of seafood is available – crab, eel, shark fin, oyster and octopus are all on offer – and things get even weirder in the meat category. Tebasaki fried chicken wings? Snake? Horse meat? We don’t know which is the oddest, but if we had to eat something out of that lot, we'd pick the chicken wing. 

Ice cream mash-ups

Of course, you don't have to settle for mass-produced, shop-bought flavours when you can make your own. Via his blog The Food In My Beard, Dan Whalen has honed his skills at pairing liquid nitrogen ice cream with mash-up cuisine. Having already created such amalgamations as BLT ice cream – steeping bacon and rocket leaves in milk and topping with a sweet tomato jam – he had to recently raise his game when invited to a professional ice cream party.

Dan explains: “I knew these people had tried lots of ice cream flavors and had essentially ‘seen it all.’” His answer – malted squid ink ice cream with wasabi sprinkles. “The squid ink added more of a salty hint of ocean flavour, and paired with the creamy milk, and sweet flavour of the malt powder, this ice cream had a strong umami essence.” Dan is also well aware of the importance of how his creation looks, saying: “The wasabi sprinkles added that visual pop of the green on black that took the pictures to the next level.”

Heladeria Coromoto, Ice Cream World Record Holder

When it comes to variety, nobody is ever going to compete with Heladeria Coromoto in Venezuela, which holds a Guinness World Record for its 860 ice cream flavours. Where do we even start? Of course you have your regular selection, but things soon stray off course: sardines and brandy, mushrooms and wine, spaghetti and cheese. The menu then gets fantastically abstract, with flavours such as British Airways, Viagra Hope and World Cup ‘98. Your guess is as good as ours, but seeing as ice cream may never be the same again it could be time to try something new. Just don't start with the horse flavour...