There’s no doubt about it — ice cream is one of the best parts of summer. And, well, most seasons. But there’s something about eating an ice cream cone outside in the summertime that’s super refreshing. The one annoyance? The melting issue. Yes, it’s kind of a pain to have sticky hands after enjoying the treat. But did you know that there is an ice cream out there that doesn’t melt upon contact with the great outdoors? It almost sounds too good to be true.
It seems like the no-melt ice cream was discovered in a pretty amazing way — by accident, of course. After a 2011 tsunami wreaked havoc on some strawberry fields in Japan, a professor Tomihisa Ohta thought of ways to save what they could of the supply. They extracted liquid polyphenol from the strawberries in hopes of turning it into a delicious topping, but realized by accident that when it was mixed with regular cream, it solidified into a perfect, non-melting treat. Yum.
It’s known as Kanazawa ice cream, mostly since Ohta worked with a team at Kanazawa University while developing it.
Right now, it’s extremely popular in Japan. According to The Japan Times, one way it’s served is by setting it on fire, giving it somewhat of a crème brûlée taste.
Even though the OG ice cream has few flaws, the fact that it melts so quickly makes it seem like there’s a race to finish. A sweet product that doesn’t melt isn’t just cleaner, but lets you really enjoy the popular dessert.
Hopefully a vendor in the United States tries to bring Kanazawa ice cream over here, since it’d be a huge hit.
Here at So Yummy, we’re huge fans of ice cream — even though it melts. That’s why we came up with three ways you can customize your frozen dessert, fulfilling all of your desires.
Now, we’re really all screaming for ice cream.