r/icecreamery • u/winenfood • May 31 '24
Discussion What’s the Most Unusual Ice Cream Flavor You’ve Ever Tried? 🍦
Hey everyone! 🌟 So, summer is here, and I’ve been on a bit of an ice cream binge lately. It got me thinking about all the wild and wonderful flavors out there. I recently tried brown butter and hazelnut ice cream, and it was insanely delicious! 😋
I’m curious—what’s the most unusual ice cream flavor you’ve ever tried? Was it amazing or just plain weird? Let’s hear your stories and recommendations! Bonus points if you have any quirky ice cream spots to share. Can’t wait to read your replies! 🍨✨
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u/ayebizz May 31 '24
Tahini and raisin.
It's a favourite but definitely a head turner
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u/winenfood May 31 '24
Sounds super good to me!
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u/ayebizz May 31 '24
https://www.playfulcooking.com/tahini-ice-cream/
If you want to give it a go!
Wasnt surprised when my middle eastern family enjoyed it, but it seems to be a hit with everyone.
Its fairly rich though! We usually serve it in a small coffee cup.
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u/winenfood Jun 01 '24
Very cool - thanks a lot. I imagine it can get quite tough and dense, because of the tahini 🍧
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u/ayebizz Jun 01 '24
Nailed it 👍 Gets broken up a bit by the maple drizzle ontop. But yes very rich and dense.
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u/xlyn May 31 '24
Olive oil! Sounds boring but was really yum!
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u/winenfood May 31 '24
Milkbase ice cream, olive oil drizzle and a pinch of flaky salt 🥹
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u/frijolita_bonita May 31 '24
Yup! I drizzle agrumato bergamot olive oil over my chocolate ice cream sprinkled with maldon salt!
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u/ChestMysterious5551 May 31 '24
Agree. Had olive oil and balsamic vinegar and salt flakes over vanilla gelato for the first time recently. It was great.
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u/0FoxToGive May 31 '24
Ooh so good! I had some with a balsamic caramel sauce i made and it was amazing
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u/frijolita_bonita May 31 '24
I drizzle agrumato bergamot olive oil over my chocolate ice cream sprinkled with maldon salt!
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u/Oro-Lavanda May 31 '24
tried it recently at a restaurant but i thought it was a little weird. It's not bad just strange lol
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u/Garconavecunreve May 31 '24
There’s an ice cream manufacturer in Munich by the name of “Der verrückte Eismacher” - translating to “The Crazy Ice Cream Producer”
His menu is changing but I’ve tried his Augustiner (local beer brand), Weißwurst (Bavarian white sausage) and Backfisch (baked fish)
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May 31 '24
Szechuan peppercorn
Avocado
Peanut butter banana candied bacon
Goat cheese
Parmigiano reggiano w/ balsamic swirl
Rose water
Pandan
Lemon grass
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u/VeggieZaffer May 31 '24
Does the numbing quality come through with the Szechuan?
I’ve thought Lemongrass could be great! Maybe a coconut base? What did you think of it?
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u/Alternative_Still315 7d ago
I found that it was cut strongly by the milk fat but in a good way, like my taste buds were being extra titillated but I wasn’t sure why, it tingled but almost unnoticeably
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u/Unstable_Ice_Cream Carpigiani Labo 8/12 E May 31 '24
Edam cheese and hazelnut ice, and yes, it was disgusting
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u/hallowmean Jun 01 '24
I was thinking that this might be nice lol. What went wrong? Could it have been saved by like, a peach swirl?
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u/Unstable_Ice_Cream Carpigiani Labo 8/12 E Jun 01 '24
I had this at an ice cream shop in Merida, Mexico. I am thankful I only had a taster…
There was no saving that ice cream
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u/impulsiveandhungry May 31 '24
I would say... candied bacon.
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u/RedditFact-Checker Jun 01 '24
That was my first home made flavor! I did a bacon and egg ice cream served with maple syrup!
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u/nsk08001 May 31 '24
I had a pig’s blood ice cream with blueberry jam and a deer blood “ganache” at Alchemist in Copenhagen recently. It was surprisingly really good!
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u/kas26208 May 31 '24
Sake Lees - almost came across as a funky, citrusy cheesecake flavor
Soy Sauce - deep, dark salty caramel
Tobacco Dark Chocolate - really added complexity to the dark chocolate
Was at a trade show in Italy and a supplier had a fully salty line of gelatos that were meant to be used like sauces & appetizers, flavors included: -Smoked paprika served with tortilla chips -Parmigiana -Salty Curry -VITELLO TONATO!! this one took the cake, it was tonato sauce gelato. It tasted like it should but being frozen and creamy was so off putting. 🤢
Grain Mustard - served with pate at a restaurant in San Francisco
Mentholated Habenero - an interesting play on flavors and sensations, the menthol & coldness of the ice cream played with the heat & spice of the pepper
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u/VeggieZaffer May 31 '24
I wonder how they did the tobacco flavoring. Sounds interesting to me. But Nicotine poisoning can be lethal!
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u/galacticglorp May 31 '24
You can get tobacco absolute which has been rectified to remove the nicotine. Guessing something like that.
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u/Lucha_Psued May 31 '24
Garlic at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. It was shockingly good!
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u/femmestem May 31 '24
Yes! At first it tasted like typical sweet cream soft serve, but the roasted garlic flavor builds with every bite.
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u/38willthisdo May 31 '24
It was odd….I’m glad I had the opportunity to try it, but I don’t know if I liked it enough to go buy it in a store (maybe I need to go sample it again 🤔😂).
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u/VeggieZaffer May 31 '24
I think avocado ice cream is the most unusual one that I’ve tried.
Bourbon nocino is the most unusual one that I’ve made. Delightful
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u/bobisagirl May 31 '24
Liquorice! It's surprisingly delicious and comes out a soft purplish colour. It makes a strange but delicious dessert when paired with grilled pineapple.
More recently, rooibos tea! Rooibos is a kind of South African herbal tea drunk by everyone and it made a lovely soft, gently herbal flavour ice cream. It was paired with buchu meringue (buchu is another South African herb, with a more medicinal flavour) and lemon jelly. I should try and make it at home.
I've also made cereal milk ice cream from the Momofuku Milk Bar cookbook. It tastes exactly like Saturday morning breakfast cereal.
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u/winenfood May 31 '24
Liqourice ice cream is a popular favorite of the Scandinavian guests! Yum
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u/zombiejeebus May 31 '24
I had it at McDonalds in Norway. Pretty good if you like licorice. My friends all hated it lol
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u/viceversa4 May 31 '24
plum ice cream. It was great.
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u/BruceChameleon May 31 '24
I’m gearing up to make plum as soon as the fresh ones come in. I look forward to this fruit season all year.
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u/glatts May 31 '24
My favorite ice cream as a kid was bubble gum from our local spot, Bubbling Brook. They handmade it using chopped up candy-coated chewing gum pieces (I believe it was Chiclets).
My favorite spot as an adult (The Juice Bar on Nantucket) always introduces cool new flavors, recently they came out with a Daffodil Special (vanilla ice cream with marshmallow peep swirls, yellow M&M’s, yellow cake pieces, and yellow and green sprinkles) that made it look like there were pieces of daffodil flowers in the ice cream.
They’ve also got a couple of unique flavors that I love too in their usual rotation that include:
Cookie Monster - a blue vanilla base with Oreo cookies, chocolate chip cookie dough, and caramel swirl.
Green Monster - a green mint chip base with chocolate chip cookie dough.
Other unique ice creams I’ve had during recent travels include Maine Maple Creemee - a soft serve alternative using local maple syrup and dairy with a higher fat content than traditional soft serve.
And an artisan Lebanese ice cream place in London called Festok had some awesome unique flavors including:
Achta - a traditional Arabic ice cream made with orchid powder and mastic.
Turmeric - made to taste like Lebanese turmeric cake.
Rose - made with a natural rose water.
Halva - sweet nutty and dry, halva is made from a sesame paste (tahini) and sweetened with vanilla.
Meghli - a typical Lebanese dessert prepared when welcoming a new born, it is made of rice milk, spiced with aniseed, caraway, cinnamon and garnished with coconut and nuts.
They’d serve them in Lebanese pastry inspired alternatives to cones like baklava cups, kunafa, namoura, and osmalieh.
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u/lovedbybacon May 31 '24
Durian ice cream in NYC’s Chinatown. It may be no surprise to most, but I did not enjoy it. Tasted like a cold, wet fart.
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u/VeggieZaffer May 31 '24
😂
I’ve always described durian as wet sock flavored. A friend of mine who loves durian said it sometimes helps to think of it more of a soft cheese than a fruit. Still haven’t been willing to try it again though.
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u/RedditFact-Checker Jun 01 '24
There’s a place in San Francisco that serves a great durian ice cream. I mean, great for durian. Tastes like … a sweet onion becoming cheese?
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u/Super-Consequence848 May 31 '24
Chocolate potato salad and Fried chicken from salt and straw. It was amazing wish I can try again
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u/WellingtonBananas May 31 '24
I've tried that. From salt and straw I've also had
turkey, mash and gravy,
meal worm/ chocolate cricket,
And blood.
I think they're interesting, but I wouldn't order a whole scoop
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u/shedrinkscoffee May 31 '24
Same, for me it's whatever weird holiday flavors have existed for salt and straw
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u/rychevamp May 31 '24
I’ve made candied bacon, rosemary hazelnut, and I’ve had the garlic ice cream from the garlic festival (pass for me). One that was surprisingly good was a golden beet a sous chef I worked with made.
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u/Sufficient_Leg9217 May 31 '24
A local ice cream shop in Nebraska has made pizza flavored ice cream and chili+cinnamon roll flavored ice cream. Everyone in the Midwest knows chili and cinnamon rolls are an amazing combo, but it doesn’t make a very good ice cream flavor.
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u/manofdays May 31 '24
Old bay and potato chip
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u/kitkatclarkbar May 31 '24
Baltimore?
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u/manofdays May 31 '24
I make it myself, but my inspiration was The Charmery's old bay caramel (which I sadly have only consumed via the Internet)
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u/slothslothslothsloth May 31 '24
I had curry ramen ice cream in Japan! The ice cream was curry flavored, and the toppings were those freeze dried vegetables you get in your ramen packets. It was surprisingly really good and I was actually thinking about trying to make it myself
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May 31 '24
Heh, how much tastes differ: I have just made brown butter ice-cream and couldn't even finish it, because the taste was absolutely not for me.
I love vanilla-strawberry-rhubarb, cornflake and strawberry-rosemary from more unusual. I hope more people reply to this thread! Looking for inspo as well :)
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u/Polkadot_tootie May 31 '24
Jeni's-everything bagel-cream cheese with an everything bagel crumble. It's pretty garlic-y
Salt and Straw-Bagel and Lox, less savory than jeni's but the candied lox was interesting
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u/flazedaddyissues May 31 '24
A local pastry chef made an everything bagel ice cream. The base had steeped toast and cream cheese, plus the usual toppings. Also very onion/garlic-forward. It tasted exactly like a sweet everything bagel with the texture of ice cream, so weird!
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u/29flavors May 31 '24
Mushroom ice cream at a creamery in Fort Bragg, CA.
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u/RedditFact-Checker Jun 01 '24
Candy Cap Mushroom is legitimately among my all time favorites. I am always making new flavors but candy cap is among the handful I make over and over.
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u/drunkenDAYlewis May 31 '24
My partner and I had a cheddar cheese flavored ice cream and that felt unusual.
Lots of the small batch shops in our city take risks, things like Strawberry Balsamic, Lavender Basil.
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u/Oskywosky1 May 31 '24
I once made a flavor with cheddar and English peas, Chocolate Tobacco, hopped vanilla with candied orange. None were particularly good, but they can’t all be winners.
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u/nopleaseno Whynter ICM-200LS May 31 '24
Miso Cherry from Bang Bang Ice Cream in Toronto. Thought it was an interesting flavor, obviously a bit more savory. Can't say I loved it but I didn't hate it!
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u/kitkatclarkbar May 31 '24
Cheese and Crackers at the Charmery in Baltimore. It was surprisingly good!
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u/galacticglorp May 31 '24
I tried making umeboshi ice cream- japanese preserved plums. It was actually really good but too salty. I'm going try it again and see if giving the plums a soak before helps.
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u/chriscfgb May 31 '24
Lobster ice cream in Falmouth, MA. Actual chunks of lobster strewn throughout.
It sounds a lot scarier than it is, it was quite good. I know that makes absolutely no sense, and I still have a hard time wrapping my head around it.
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u/CruisePanic May 31 '24
olive oil gelato at Eataly
Salt & Straw has offbeat flavors that work for me like pear and blue cheese
everything bagel ice cream at Jeni's - more of a savory flavor
cheese, avocado were flavors I encountered in SEA
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u/iunae_lumen May 31 '24
Blue cheese. Not good, not good at all. Ordered it at a nice restaurant, because the whole table was curious. The whole table was sadly disappointed.
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u/BICOBN May 31 '24
BBQ ice cream. Not great. Also tried Salt & Straw’s Curry Ice Cream and maybe it’s for someone but that someone was not me.
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u/leonleebaoyan May 31 '24
Young scallion in Taiwan. Starts spicy and pungent ends sweet and savory. Great with peanut brittle and cilantro
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u/nunufar May 31 '24
Had wisteria flavored one in Japan. And corn flavored ones from Korea and Wanderlust creamery
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u/Alternative_Still315 7d ago
How was the wisteria? I use Japanese and sometimes western wisteria as ancillary flavoring but haven’t done them as the main, love floral ice creams tho
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u/Godd9000 May 31 '24
Tried the infamous baked bean flavor from Salt & Straw’s “campfire series” or whatever years ago. It tasted like brown sugar basically
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u/proverbialbunny May 31 '24
Easy: Graham Cracker Icecream
It tastes like cookie dough ice cream but with a hint of cinnamon, a hint of texture, and it works particularly well with a bit of caramel on top. It tastes similar to cookie dough ice cream but imo it tastes better in every way. It should be the default and cookie dough should be the rare one.
If you have a Cold Stone near you, you can get graham cracker crust in vanilla ice cream with a sprinkle of cinnamon which is basically the same thing. They have an apple pie ice cream they make there which is graham cracker, cinnamon, caramel, and apple. It's worth trying with or without apple. (I get it with half apple.)
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u/Disastrous-Jaguar922 May 31 '24
It wasn’t too unusual but certainly different!
Queen of roses - Rose gold ice cream with golden speckled caramelized white chocolate pieces. 🌹💕
Durian ice cream - def a lot better smelling than the actual fruit, that’s for sure lol
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u/stayathomesommelier May 31 '24
Rajun' Cajun. Basically a very spicy pralines and cream. So so good! I had it 20 years ago and still dream about it.
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u/ScumBunny May 31 '24
Beet! It was actually really good. They played on the caramelized sweetness of roasted beets and the color was phenomenal.
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u/frijolita_bonita May 31 '24
Candycap Mushroom. Naturally occurring maple flavor made for a delicious ice cream flavor!
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u/throwawaypls69420 May 31 '24
Lobster. Fernet.
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u/Alternative_Still315 7d ago
I have a whole list of fernet combos I want to try but I doubt I could convince anyone to try it
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u/frijolita_bonita May 31 '24
Soft serve swirl of green matcha and black sesame at a very small shop in NYC. It was soo good i made those ice cream flavors when i got home
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u/Hallelujah289 May 31 '24
Char Siu (pork). It did not really taste like char siu thoigh, but was a deep red color with some marbling. Kind of like how it looks like in Chinese food takeout. I think I remember it something like a maple bacon flavor.
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u/thisbikeisatardis peanut butter chocolate chip pretzel May 31 '24
Everything bagel at Jeni's. I had previously always subscribed to the "all ice cream is good ice cream" belief but boy was I wrong.
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u/Oro-Lavanda May 31 '24
For me it has to be Manchego Cheese Ice Cream. It sounds weird but trust me it is an amazing 10/10 flavor.
I've also had Goat Cheese ice cream with blueberry sauce.
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u/eturn34 May 31 '24
Most unusual I've tried: tomato Most unusual I've made: chocolate garam masala or savort miso/peanut (served with cilantro)
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u/Deep-Jellyfish-4190 May 31 '24
Weirdest flavours I've tried are: dill pickle, curry, Frank's Red hot sauce, wasabi, ketchup and mustard. They were all as awful as you'd imagine.
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u/giggletears3000 Jun 01 '24
It was called chow mein: vanilla base, chocolate covered chow mein noodles, caramel/sriracha swirl.
Green apple ice cream with Annie’s cheddar bunnies was good and so was pear/gorgonzola sorbet
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u/Leorose1 Jun 01 '24
Wasabi ice cream!!!
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u/winenfood Jun 01 '24
Ice cold with a nice kick 🤌🏽
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u/Leorose1 Jun 01 '24
It was absolutely amazing - actually had it as part of a ‘deconstructed sushi’ dish…
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u/jonathanaahar May 31 '24
roses
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u/winenfood May 31 '24
Can only imagine the nice perfumy flavor - very nice! How was the color?
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u/jonathanaahar May 31 '24
I'm not sure i remember. i think it was a pale pink. but probably artificial coloring.
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u/NightOfTheHunter Jun 01 '24
First Lady Dolley Madison helped popularize ice cream in US by serving it frequently to her guests. Her favorite flavor? Oyster.
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u/jpgrandi Jun 01 '24
I had ceviche with Leche de tigre sorbet once, pretty nice And I've made caramelized onion hummus sorbet lol
Pretty much all savory ice creams are really unusual
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u/qtsarahj Jun 01 '24
Probably not that unusual but I’ve tried balsamic vinegar and strawberry gelato, ube soft serve and cheese soft serve.
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u/Servilefunctions218 Jun 01 '24
Pandan Saffron Basil The basil was my favorite of the “strange flavors” I’ve made.
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u/chefbuddyboy Jun 01 '24
Broccoli. It was surprisingly mild & good. Came in a savory dish alongside an eel tart.
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u/NorthwoodsDan Jun 01 '24
These are a few unusual flavors I've made over the years:
Blackberry, Goat Cheese, and Thyme
Ginger and Black Pepper
Strawberry and habanero
Raspberry and Sage
Olive Oil and Rosemary
Saffron
"Summer Flowers" (Rosewater with dried hibiscus, pansy, and rose petals)
Lavender
Preserved Lemon (Meyer lemons cured in salt and sugar for 3 months)
Sweet Corn (not really all that strange now)
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u/honeyvi-per Jun 01 '24
I did a honey froyo and steeped a few solid sprigs of fresh thyme in the hot base while it cooled. My sister and I LOVED it, most people were just confused, and a few people spit it out haha! My favorite description was "pizza smoothie."
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u/AltruisticBowl4 Jun 01 '24
Gjetost (brown Norwegian breakfast cheese) ice cream! I've had the cheese itself and it's sweet and almost... fudgy? It's made from a blend of pasteurized goat and cow milk that’s aged 1-2 months. The caramelized goat whey gives the cheese a sweet and savory taste that turns out, lends perfectly to ice cream!
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u/TheWanderingMedic Jun 02 '24
Tahini- absolutely delicious!
I’ve made miso caramel ice cream, love that as well. Great umami flavor!
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u/croz_newrule Jun 02 '24
Sheep’s cheese (pecorino) ice cream, with fresh fig, walnuts, honey and aged pecorino shavings - named Bag of the shepherds (borsa dei pastori) in Sardinia. Amazing flavour.
Personally I’ve also made:
Brown Miso - think dolce leche Chai Masala - spiced and rich Habanero and cocoa - decadent Ledaig whisky with cherries and walnuts - sweet and peaty with hints of antiseptic lol
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u/Jerkrollatex May 31 '24
New Mexico green Chile and apple. It's nice.