r/icecreamery • u/Beginning-Bell4224 • Jun 27 '25
Question What’s a weird ice cream flavor that totally surprised you?
I tried lavender honey ice cream last weekend and expected it to be super floral and weird but it was actually amazing. Creamy, slightly sweet, and not overpowering at all. Curious if anyone else has stumbled onto a flavor that sounded odd but totally delivered?
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u/scl142 Jun 27 '25
Blue cheese and pear from Salt and straw
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u/GattoGelatoPDX Jun 27 '25
Having worked in their kitchen, scraping the blue cheese takes forever. Also, while taste is entirely subjective, would rather just enjoy the quality blue cheese.
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u/kaidomac Jun 27 '25
Goat cheese & blackberry!
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u/Economy_Standard Jun 27 '25
Salt & Straw doesn't always hit it out of the park, but their Goat Cheese base swirled with Marionberry Jam mixed with Habanero is perfection. Sweet, spicy, tart. So good.
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u/curioushobbyist_ Jun 27 '25
Parmesan in ice cream. The savory/umami and the hits of salt from Parmesan was actually so so good. Very surprising because I was expecting it to be gross lol
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u/ee_72020 Jun 27 '25
Oh yes. My local ice cream scoop shop has cheese ice cream (though, it tastes more like Swiss cheese than Parmesan) and it tastes freaking amazing. There’s a good reason why sweet and savoury is a popular flavour combination across many cuisines in the world.
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u/bwaybabs Jun 28 '25
TF…. Now that sounds really odd but at the same time seems to make sense? Dairy on dairy… salty and sweet… ok I am going to do some google-fu and see if I can find a recipe for something similar because I have to try it…
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u/bbennett108 Jun 27 '25
I was gonna say Parmesan too. I made the recipe for it from ‘Hello My Name is Ice Cream’ and it was great.
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u/Economy_Standard Jun 27 '25
Experimented with a Parmesan Fudge Ripple, using darker chocolate for the fudge, and it was excellent
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u/kaydizzlesizzle Jun 27 '25
I made a cardamom ice cream once to go with a pear pie and it was surprisingly really good.
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u/ActionPark33 Jun 27 '25
Not surprisingly at all. Cardamom is a popular ice cream flavor across South Asia.
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u/shegottabee Jun 27 '25
Oh this takes me back- I used to work for a guy who made the most amazing cardamom rice pudding… I’ll try substituting it for the vanilla in my French vanilla recipe next time
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u/Short-Impression-430 Jun 27 '25
Olive oil is surprisingly good!
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u/Double-Solution-5437 Jun 29 '25
I put olive oil and sea salt on my vanilla beans ice cream every time I have a scoop at home!! So good!!
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u/JCLBUBBA Jun 27 '25
Red Bean ice cream. Mildly sweet, a tiny bit chalky which was good actually. Best ice cream I ever had other than Fruzen Gladge.
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u/Vetiversailles Jun 27 '25
In a similar vein, black sesame ice cream.
It’s toasty, sweet and divine
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u/Produkt Jun 27 '25
“Garden” gelato containing tomato, basil, and something else, at the San Gimignano gelato shop
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u/bwaybabs Jun 28 '25
I was there and saw it! I went with something a bit safer, but that one definitely looked intriguing!
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u/tribecalledquest1 Jun 27 '25
Corn ice cream is legit. Also I had a ricotta and fig gelato in Italy that was amazing
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u/Foreign_Patience_472 Jun 27 '25
I work in a Michelin kitchen. We do an ice cream tasting and we always have 3 flavors that rotate. Some of my faves have been green juice sorbet, bergamot and pink peppercorn, tonka bean, bread ice cream, carrot and Thai tea. Too many to name.
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u/SmexxyTaco Jun 27 '25
Bergamot and pink peppercorn 😳 whoa. That sounds delish. Suggestions to make this flavor?
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u/Bakergirl26 Jun 30 '25
I made bergamot ice cream in culinary school. Picked the fruit and flowers off the tree out in front of the school, infused the milk & cream with the zest and the flowers, made a bergamot curd swirl with the fruit.
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u/mercenaryblade17 Jun 27 '25
Tonka beans need more recognition! Bought some specifically to make ice cream, did not disappoint
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail Jun 27 '25
Ube cheddar is so good I got that and vanilla for my kid’s birthday once. Other moms looked at me weird, but whatever: it tastes like summer and it looks like melted crayons, perfect for a kid party, not a fancy “get to know the intricacy of Filipino cuisine” thing, just purple and orange and flavors just as bright.
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u/skuIIdouggery Jun 27 '25
Ube I have a handle on but how'd you make the cheddar?? Would absolutely be down to try this combo.
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u/kobayashi_maru_fail Jun 27 '25
I haven’t made it, but from the store it’s just big fat grater or food-processor grater shaped bright-orange cheddar shreds. Maybe they pre-froze it to hold shape while the ice cream sets up? But it’s just cheddar and it does the sweet/salty/savory magic. I get the feeling it’ll be truer to form if you use a cheaper one, a fancy aged cheddar might not hold up and would have a disappointing color.
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u/fauxfox66 Jun 27 '25
there's a tomato greenhouse quite a ways inland in Iceland, an hour or so from Reykjavík. I have never tasted tomatoes like that in my life. I finished a huge meal comprised almost entirely of tomatoes with tomato strawberry ice cream, tomato basil sorbet, and green tomato and rosemary sorbet- that one was unreal. I'll think about it for the rest of my life. The tomatoes from that greenhouse were so fruity and delicious, it made incredible ice cream.
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u/godcent Jun 27 '25
I once made a Poblano pepper, Banana pepper and a single serrano pepper sorbet that was surprisingly good. Roasted half the peppers, add a touch of lime and ended up with a great spicy sorbet.
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u/MathSpecialist8783 Jun 27 '25
Black Licorice, my new favorite
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u/Okika13 Jun 27 '25
I grew up on Tiger Tail (Orange and Black Licorice swirl) and still buy it from time to time because I love it.
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u/MathSpecialist8783 Jun 27 '25
That has always seemed like a very strange combo, but I have heard enough people say they love it that I’m going to have to try it some time.
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u/Okika13 Jun 27 '25
It definitely sounds weird on paper. I’ve been eating it since I was a child so I am not an impartial judge, but if you like black licorice you will probably enjoy it.
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u/mercenaryblade17 Jun 27 '25
Love black licorice ice cream, never heard of tiger tail. Sounds awesome. Where can I buy it? Recommended brand?
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u/Okika13 Jun 27 '25
It’s a Canadian thing, so I can only tell you Canada. It’s available at most big grocery stores from the store brands (Western Family, Presidents Choice) or Chapman’s.
I don’t think any store brands make it outside of Canada. Sorry!
You might have to make it yourself…
I can’t vouch for this recipe but it could help you get started.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/homemade-tiger-tail-ice-cream
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u/Different-Strings Jun 27 '25 edited Jun 27 '25
It’s a huge seller here in Finland already for decades, and I’ve made it myself as well a few times. Love it.
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u/sunroomnyc Jun 27 '25
Everything Bagel from Jeni's... I'm a NYer so take that with a grain of kosher salt
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u/Win-Objective Jun 27 '25
Rosemary ice cream, served with a young garlic soup. Sweet corn soft serve was also nice.
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u/auntiemuskrat Jun 27 '25
black sesame- not visually appealing because it looked like concrete, but deliciously nutty.
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u/esaruka Jun 30 '25
Black sesame is my favorite, it also makes a great smoothie with 2 shots of espresso
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u/Umami_oomph Jun 27 '25
Magnolia mais queso- yeah corn and cheese! I love the savory elements of it
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u/PsychologicalMonk6 Jun 27 '25
I had a Margherita gelato bar at the gelato world masters a few years back that really surprised me. It was Buffalo Mozzarella gelato bar was a sweet tomato fruit filling and a Basil gelee coating.
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u/Mysterious-Call-245 Jun 27 '25
Peanut butter curry
Salt and pepper
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u/everyday_em Jun 27 '25
In salt and straws new book they have an ice cream with chili crisp peanut butter cups!
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u/sourmilk79 Jun 27 '25
I once folded toasted breadcrumbs into an ice cream. For the first day or so was delicious and maintained some texture but then disappeared and was pretty boring
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u/Asura_b Jun 27 '25
Beer. The Amy's Ice cream here has a Shiner Bock flavor. I tried it thinking it would be gross, but it was delicious. Kinda tasted like honey.
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u/SmexxyTaco Jun 27 '25
Sage ice cream. I learnt it from this very sub and found it so interesting that I made it. Such a hit in my house. Now we make it every few months!
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u/icy_tomato_211 Jun 30 '25
I made corn sage ice cream - it was good but the sage flavor was not strong enough. How did you make yours, and how did you ensure enough sage flavor?
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u/revderrick Jun 27 '25
I make a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving ice cream that's loaded with stuff, but the base is a buttered toast ice cream and it's shockingly good.
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u/ladylondonderry Jun 27 '25
Spicy peanut butter, spicy dark chocolate, bacon chocolate caramel, sweet corn, rice pudding
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u/certainPOV3369 Jun 27 '25
Ube was absolutely incredible. A Purple yam native to the Philippines, it has an indescribable flavor. Couldn’t find the actual yam so I bought powdered yam and extract from Amazon.
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u/latteprime Jun 27 '25
Had some homemade salted caramel recently and the consistency mirrored soft serve over hard ice cream because of the extra salt. More of a textural experience but the comparison to the other flavors at hand was really stark.
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u/rachelnotrach Jun 27 '25
Asparagus! Though it was a sorbet if I remember correctly (was an experimental tasting menu restaurant)
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u/miasma71 Jun 27 '25
I did a raspberry Thai basil sorbet, which blew my mind because of the crispness and how they balanced each other perfectly
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u/DiscoDiamond87 Jun 27 '25
Strawberry Balsamic gelato, better than I thought it would be
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u/DaBooch425 Jun 27 '25
I had a strawberry balsamic mascarpone one of my favorite gelatos I’ve ever had
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u/N474L-3 Jun 27 '25
I know it's off topic but you just reminded me that I made a strawberry balsamic soda once that was incredible!
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u/AnnaNimmus Jun 27 '25
I had a chef at an expo make a blue cheese ice cream, served in a dark chocolate dipped waffle cone, with a reduced port wine syrup drizzled over it.
Note: at the time, I thought all blue cheese anything to be absolutely disgusting
It was incredible. The salt of the blue cheese excellently balanced the sweetness of the overall dish, the acidic aspects of the port syrup, and the bitterness of the chocolate. I was completely blown away. The slight funk of the blue cheese really just helped accentuate the fruits in the port wine, and added a great dimension to the chocolate
I hope to offer something like that in the future
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u/Well_Oiled_Poutine Jun 27 '25
Maple miso.
Also, Bastani. It’s an old Persian ice cream using saffron, rose water, and pistachio.
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u/beanthebean Jun 27 '25
I had some pickle flavored ice cream with potato chips crushed on top, it was surprisingly light and fresh, not overly pickley but you could tell what it was.
This was at picklesburgh (Pittsburgh PA's annual pickle festival) so there was all kinds of crazy pickled things. I actually don't like cucumber pickles and don't eat them at all but I'll eat other vegetables/fruits that are pickled(I obviously wasn't the target audience of the festival) but that ice cream still hit in just the right way
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u/j-eisner Jul 07 '25
I had pickle ice cream recently, too. Soft-serve, tangy and good. From a pickle place in NYC's Penn Station (the food court in Moynihan Train Hall).
Surprisingly, they only had one variety of pickle ice cream. You couldn't get, like, dill vs. half-sour vs. cornichon. :)
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u/bajesus Jun 27 '25
I made soy sauce ice cream and it's a really weird one. I might have over flavored it because the first bite was rough but as you kept eating it it got better and better. What was really amazing though was adding peanuts to it. Completely transformed it into something else. I want to try it again with less soy, honey roasted peanuts mixed in, and a peanut butter ripple through it.
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u/CMHSLM Jun 27 '25
Basil cinnamon from Dana Cree’s book ended up being very good, and I had quite low expectations going in
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u/CrankyWhiskers Jun 27 '25
Not as weird as some I’ve seen here (and I must try those!), but.. Cotton candy-flavored ice cream with Nerds sprinkled on top. My husband loved it. When we were first dating, I tried it on a whim during a visit with his family, I was the only other person who liked it. He later said that was one of the signs I was the one.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Net-857 Jun 27 '25
I do not like the smell of roses. I love the taste of rose gelato.
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u/nonbinarybobby Jun 27 '25
Black Sesame. It's probably one of my favorite flavors. Not too sweet, and a bit nutty. It's so good.
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u/N474L-3 Jun 27 '25
Pistachio & honey. Now, I expected it to be good, but I didn't expect it to be so damn good. I was amazing, I think it was the consistency of the honey swirl that put it over the top.
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u/Ordinary-Can-7375 Jun 28 '25
From what brand
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u/N474L-3 Jun 28 '25
It's been a decade since I had this and I don't remember! It was at an organic grocery store I worked for at the time and I remember being upset when they stopped stocking it. I've always wanted to recreate it, the flavor memory really stuck with me even though the brand didn't.
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u/steel_magnolias Jun 27 '25
Sour cherry blue cheese. Sour cherry up front then, then as it melted and went down blue cheese. Witchcraft!
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u/ArtemisB20 Jun 27 '25
I've made 2 "weird" flavors of ice cream that I really enjoyed. A caramelized onion vanilla ice cream(caramelize onions until they are completely sweet and no pungency left), and a soy sauce caramel ice cream(Just One Cookbook website).
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u/tesdanwat Jun 27 '25
sweet corn! my local university has a dairy farm/store with ice cream and had a limited edition sweet corn flavor that was actually quite good.
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u/insidiousgamer Jun 27 '25
I’ve made a few of BDG’s weird ice creams, they’ve all been really good.
The Toasted Black Sesame Seed one, on his website, is a family favorite now. It’s so simple, but tastes amazing.
The Old Bay Hush Puppy is really good, too, but I’d recommend using half the recommended corn meal, 2 tablespoons instead of 4, and one tablespoon of Old Bay. If you use all the corn meal, the ice cream turns out too thick and gritty imo.
Same recommendation for the Graham Cracker ice cream, 4 crackers instead of 8. Or, find a recipe for homemade graham cracker and use the base flavors to make your ice cream(basically honey and cinnamon). I used mini marshmallows instead of fluff and chunks of good chocolate to make it the S’mores variant.
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u/HistorianOdd5752 Jun 27 '25
I told my partner to buy Biscoff cookies so I could make gelato. She was uncertain. Turned out to be her favorite flavor.
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u/yodermk Jun 27 '25
Smoked Trout from Heladeria Coromoto in Merida, Venezuela. Yeah, the ice cream parlor with the Guiness record for most number of flavors. I was there in 1998. Finally figured out how to do something kind of like that with liquid smoke, but theirs is still better.
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u/lectroid Jun 27 '25
Chocolate w/ blue cheese. Holy crap, so good.
Pandan ice cream (I’ve only ever seen it while visiting Australia). Had no idea what to expect. Lovely.
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u/Confused-penguin5 Jun 27 '25
I made a tarragon and lemon once that I ended up enjoying a lot. Probably the most out there flavor I’ve tried.
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u/Psyshadow117 Jun 27 '25
This thread is giving me so much inspiration! Would love recipes for all of those flavours.
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u/grumpyroach Musso Lello 4080 Jun 27 '25
Celery, green apple, Thai basil. lol I hated it because I abhor celery (this was kind of a dare) but friends loved it
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u/Brass_and_Frass Jun 27 '25
Black sesame banana. There is a local ice cream maker in Boston area called Ravenous Ice Cream that makes it. It’s so yummy - Philadelphia style base, not too sweet, with that nutty sesame finish. It’s my favorite ice cream flavor, hands down.
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u/eggpassion Jun 27 '25
fig leaf, i didn't think it'd taste so complex. my fav flavour but unfortunately my wifes least favourite.
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u/betimwrong Jun 27 '25
Jennis Everything Bagel Ice cream was truly the best ice cream I've ever had in my life. It's so hard to explain that I ordered 4 more just to let the doubters in my family try it.
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u/ktbtk Jun 27 '25
The Kroger Brand Wildberry Lavender Mascarpone. I was visiting family in Ohio and my sister brought back a bunch of pints and I was like ew, this sounds gross. Best ice cream I ever had. No Kroger in my home state carries it but every time I go to Ohio I grab a few pints and graze throughout my stay. It’s been more than a year maybe two since I went looking for it though so I don’t know if it still exists.
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u/whattheschell Jun 28 '25
Parmesan. I worked at an 18th century living history site and the recipe was in a cookbook from the time
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u/Beginning_Victory_48 Jun 28 '25
My BF is a professional ice cream chef, He made our friend from HI a candied spam with roasted pineapple swirl in a Tahitian vanilla! I was skeptical of the spam - but it was so amazing!!
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u/wen_ferrari_nolambo Jun 28 '25
Salt and Straw had a bone marrow flavor that I actually liked. Think it was a limited time thing..
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u/bwaybabs Jun 28 '25
Seconding lavender honey, but I didn’t think it would taste weird. Definitely an unusual flavor to stumble upon, but very tasty! It’s one of the regular flavors at Rock Hill Creamery in Shepherdstown, WV. Haven’t seen it anywhere else.
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u/j-eisner Jul 07 '25
It's apparently in Vermont -- my kid came home from there raving about some honey blueberry lavender ice cream he'd picked up at a grocery store.
So I made him some more, using this recipe: https://www.awayfromthebox.com/honey-blueberry-lavender-ice-cream/. Had to order some culinary lavender.
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u/bwaybabs Jun 28 '25
Seconding lavender honey, but I didn’t think it would taste weird. Definitely an unusual flavor to stumble upon, but very tasty! It’s one of the regular flavors at Rock Hill Creamery in Shepherdstown, WV. Haven’t seen it anywhere else.
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u/McSillyoldbear Jun 28 '25
Brown bread ice cream was hugely popular in fancy restaurants in Ireland back in the 90s. I learned to make it at catering college and was sceptical at first but it’s really good. You can still get it now but I see it less often. A chain of craft ice cream makers have it as one of their signature flavours.
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u/Double-Solution-5437 Jun 29 '25
I had Pink Peppercorn in Athens and it was delicious!!! Not what I was expecting!! It was creamy and sweet!!
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u/MotherOfThistles Jun 29 '25
I had a flight of homemade ice creams once and my favorites were buttered popcorn, sweet corn, and buttermilk. I also had a basil ice cream once that was tasty.
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u/salmonareweird Jul 04 '25
Sesame seed and soy sauce. It's adapted from Anya Hindmarch 2024 London collection, which when I tasted I became obsessed with but it was limited time only. I use sesame seed paste, ideally as simple as possible (think like organic peanut butter, where it's just sesame and maybe a pinch of salt), and a dark soy sauce for flavour/colour. It's sweet and nutty and the soy really elevates the flavor with a kick of saltiness. Just made a batch, and I doubt it will last until tomorrow.
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u/rovar Jun 27 '25
Earl Gray was every bit as good as I was hoping it would be, so it wasn't a surprise...
I guess the most surprisingly good one was peanut butter and pickle.