Did you know that Ice Cream generates over £1bn for the UK Economy? We all love an ice cream, whether it’s in the summer or winter and believe us the ice cream market really is booming. There has been a revolution in the ice cream world in the last few years and cafes, ice cream parlours and eateries are all coming up with some really wild and different flavoured ice cream to make your taste buds tingle. We have put together some of the Weirdest Ice Cream Flavours for you from across the world, from sweet, savoury, spicy to salty and believe us some you really would never have thought of. Take a look and see if you fancy trying any of them……
This coconut-curry ice cream really is really different with its sweet coconut flavour and its spicy zing from the curry spices, along with the roasted cashews giving it a hint of saltiness. You will love it if you like a something different to the normal vanilla or flavoured ice creams.
Cold spaghetti just doesn’t have the same appeal as cold pizza, not that either should ever be present in your ice cream. Well, this cheese-flavoured ice cream with noodle bits comes from a shop in Venezuela that sells more than 900 flavours. This is one that wouldn’t be my first choice but hey you never know, Spaghetti and Cheese ice cream could become my favourite.
Now, this is far from your typical morning cup of coffee. Made with decadent Blue Bottle Vietnamese-style coffee, each batch is zipped with hot curry, creamy peanut butter, and crunchy candied almonds giving it a truly out of this world Californian taste.
A sweet cream base which balances out the strong and earthy note of black walnuts which are very different from the mild English variety which most of us are familiar with. This one comes from Cammie’s Old Dutch Ice Cream Shoppe in Alabama.
In case the silver spoon needed a weird and wonderful cold treat to dig into, then this sour ice cream featuring wild arctic char roe caviar and blueberries from New Zealand may be the one. The creators claim the ice cream is not aggressive, but rather a subtle balance of sweet and sour and not always one just for the rich and famous.
Now this one is a cream cheese-based ice cream with a spicy mango sauce made of white balsamic vinegar, white pepper, allspice, and clove. Jeni Britton Bauer is constantly pushing the boundaries of unique treats, as evidenced by her lineup of limited edition flavours as proprietor of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams based in Ohio.
We have horseradish with our roast beef, so why not cool down that roast a bit? Organic ice cream maker Ruby Violet isn’t afraid of daring flavours, and you can now try her eye-watering horseradish-flavoured option at their Kings Cross store. You can even try it with a scoop of beetroot too.
In 2010 George’s Portobello Fish Bar in London launched an unusual cod ice cream that came complete with potato ice cream chips. We all love ‘fish and chips’ in the UK and for some, it is still a Friday night treat. So would you replace your traditional fish and ships for this Fish and Chip flavoured ice cream? I’m not sure I would but I’d certainly love to try it.
“Salty-sweet” is the preferred palette at Portland, Oregon-based Salt & Straw, where sugar and spice blend together nicely with flavours like Strawberry Honey Balsamic Strawberry with Cracked Pepper and Pear with Blue Cheese I think you must be getting the drift that wild and wonderful ice cream flavours really are a treat in America. Pear and Blue Cheese ice cream is a well-balanced mix of sweet Oregon Trail Bartlett Pears mixed with crumbles of Rogue Creamery’s award-winning Crater Lake Blue Cheese. If you’re a cheese lover then this one may be for you. Yum or not? We’ll let you decide.
Now think about this, going into your favourite bar and ordering yourself a smooth, cold pint of Guinness……. can you believe it, there is now a Guinness flavoured ice cream. Bizarre I know but definitely one on my list to try. What about you?
The idea of lobster-flavoured ice cream may not turn your head and way back the idea of seafood flavoured ice cream was nothing short of extreme, however, one sweet shop in Bar Harbor, Maine, claims to be the first to create a seafood, sweet ice cream. This is where scoops of lobster ice cream are sold alongside blueberry fudge and sticky taffy at an old-fashioned tourist shop.
The Highland Folk Museum in Newtonmore, Scotland is claiming they’re the first place ever to make porridge ice cream. The museum staff came up with the idea for the ice cream when trying to think of a food that fitted with Scotland’s unpredictable summer weather. High Life Highland, the organisation that operates the site, said: “They imagined combining our nation’s favourite breakfast dish, renowned for its warmth giving properties, with everyone’s summer favourite ice cream and came up with porridge ice cream.”. Absolutely genius don’t you think?
A Glasgow cafe is dishing out scoops of the world’s hottest and most dangerous ice cream, it is hot that customers need to sign a disclaimer. The Aldwych Cafe and ice cream parlour have launched an ice cream special called “Respiro Del Diavolo”, translated as Breath of the Devil. The frozen treat is so spicy that customers must be 18 years of age and sign a legal waiver before it is handed over the counter. Staff at the cafe even need to wear gloves when they dish out scoops. The chilli flavoured ice cream is a whopping 500 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. So, are you brave enough to give it a try? I’m not sure I am!
Mmmm I love ketchup with my fish and chips but I’m really not sure about this one, ketchup flavoured ice cream? Well, apparently it really is a thing and an ice cream shop in Ireland who makes it says it is a firm favourite with some of their ketchup loving customers. If you love ketchup then this really could make your dreams come true and why not have a scoop with the fish and chip flavoured ice cream to make it into that traditional favourite.
Japan is well-known for its obsession with wacky foods and tastes from across the world. At Ice Cream City in Tokyo, things get really weird with this chicken wing-flavoured ice cream, which is a mixture of delicious sweet and savoury flavours. When you’re next in Japan then this may be one to try.
This Vegan Creamy Chocolate Avocado Ice Cream is not only super chocolatey, it’s creamy, delicious……. and its healthy for you. The avocado is the healthy fat substitute to normal ice cream which needs the fat content to give it’s smooth and creamy texture and taste. The main avocado ingredient adds a lightness to the ice cream. Wow a healthy ice cream, now this is one for us all to try.
The inspiration came from Samantha Kopicko’s daily meal of spinach, beetroot and goats cheese salad, which she then turned into a rich ice cream dessert, removing the spinach element from the ingredients. Made from a goats cheese base and housemade beetroot syrup, it makes it earthy and creamy and mixes sweet and savoury flavours. This weird and wonderful flavoured ice cream comes from Sweet Action Ice Cream in Denver. Another great one from America.
You can taste this refreshing and tingly sorbet ice cream at Aunty Betty’s Sweet Shop in the quant Stonehaven village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. ‘Gin and tonic’ is currently a craze all over the country, so trying an ice cream in this flavour is surely a must do at some time in our lives.
It’s like marmite, you either love it or hate it and Turkish delight flavoured ice cream is the same. Rose Water, an extract of the flower, is used in many mid-eastern foods and desserts and Turkish Delight is one of them. So add this flavour to a cool and creamy ice cream and it will make your taste buds zing. Why not give it a try and ask yourself, do you love it or hate it?
Just when you thought ice cream couldn’t get any better, you find out there really is such a thing as Prosecco-flavoured gelato. Cold, creamy, light and fizzy you really do get a feel of bubbles on your taste buds when you try it. It really is like prosecco but in an ice cream.
Basil Flavoured Vanilla Ice Cream is a perfectly sweet, creamy vanilla ice cream with a delightfully fresh, earthy basil flavour that’s not overpowering. Go on you know you want to.
So there is finally a desire for grey ice cream. It doesn’t look that inviting, however, the latest ice cream sensation, dubbed “goth ice cream” on social media really is a thing. In terms of flavour, charcoal really doesn’t bring much to the mix, however, when coconut, honey, vanilla and other sweet flavours are added it really does make a delicious and different ice cream to try.
Yes, there really is such a thing….think about the taste of the leftover milk at the bottom of a bowl of cereal. Poco Gelato in Leigh-on-Sea has put ingredients together to ensure you taste it in one of their frozen desserts. It’s based on their original roasted cornflake flavour and owner Joe Donnelly has been quoted as saying, ‘one day, an American lady came into our shop and told me that cereal milk was a very popular flavour back home.’ ‘Basically, it’s a smooth ice cream tasting exactly like the milk left behind in your breakfast bowl after having some cornflakes. So, I set about making a hot infusion of cornflakes, with our custard base, before straining and churning. The rest is, as they say, history.’
There are lots of cake flavoured ice creams out there now and Founder Richard of Blu Top, who scoops his ice cream from Barbara – a teeny little Piaggio Porter van – has been making ice cream into cakes for a while now and his take on carrot cake really is the best yet. He is quoted as saying, ‘It’s infused with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, and I replace all the sugar with dark brown soft sugar to give it that mellow malty vibe,’, ‘I then bake a huge tray of handmade carrot cake and chop it into cubes. The cake is folded into the ice cream and I pipe in hearty blobs of cream cheese frosting. Utterly delicious if you are a carrot cake and ice cream lover.
So we have given you some ideas and inspiration for some weird and wonderful ice cream flavours. Can you think of any that you would like to try that hasn’t been thought of yet? There are hundreds and hundreds of the strangest flavoured ice creams out there from across the world, and more and more restaurants, ice cream parlours and ice cream experts are coming up with wildly different and weird ice cream flavours every day. What weird and wonderful ice creams have you tried over the years and which ones would you like to try?
Carpigiani UK is the leader in the Ice Cream Machinery Industry, supplying and servicing Gelato, Soft Serve and Commercial Eatery Equipment and Display Units for over 70 years. They support large and small businesses to become different from their competitors, enabling them to sell the best and highest quality ice cream to their customers. Give them a call on 01432 817320 to find out more and to start your ice cream journey with them.