Photo: Amy Stocklein Images (Getty Images)
When it comes to creamy, cold, refreshing, summer treats, it’s really hard to beat ice cream. Pretty much the most adaptable dessert (or meal depending on your mood), ice cream is the summer months in food form. Dripping down your arm all the way to your elbow, chock full of various, seemingly random chunks of chocolate, caramel, and peanut butter, ice cream is the perfect summer snack. For years, it seemed like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry reigned supreme, but now the world of ice cream seems to be wide open. Crazy concoctions abound.
From butter and lobster to a stinky Southeast Asian fruit to steak and bourbon, there’s no limit to what ice cream makers will think up. Check out some of our favorite strange flavors below.
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Strange ice creams
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8. Durian
If you don’t know what a durian is, you’re lucky. This Southeast Asian fruit is so stinky, you’re not even allowed to bring it on a plane and most forms of public transportation. Supposedly it actually tastes good (if you enjoy rotten tasting fruit), but we’ve never tried it. Perfect Scoop in Las Vegas makes a durian ice cream. We aren’t sure what they mix it with, but we’d give it a whirl.
Photo: MirageC (Getty Images)
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7. Mayonnaise
Leave it to the Scots to create a mayonnaise-flavored ice cream. The salty, sweet condiment is the base for a creamy, strange dessert dish available at ICE in Falkirk, Scotland.
Photo: nickpo (Getty Images)
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6. Old Bay
Old Bay Seasoning is the main ingredient in crab boils in many areas of the U.S. But, it’s a way of life in Maryland in particular. That’s why it’s no surprise that The Charmery in Baltimore made an ice cream featuring the beloved seasoning. The seasoning is folded into caramel for a salty sweet treat.
Photo: Old Bay
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5. Ketchup
Ketchup is already sweet so it would make sense that using the condiment to make ice cream would be pretty tasty. The folks at Gelati Enniscrone & Ballina in Enniscrone, Ireland, did just that. Apparently, people didn’t really like the final product, but we’d still try it.
Photo: George Mdivanian / EyeEm (Getty Images)
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4. Lobster
If you visit Maine in the summer and you don’t get a lobster roll, you didn’t really get the full experience. Well, that is unless you grabbed a few scoops of lobster ice cream from Benn & Bill's in Bar Harbor instead. The butter flavored ice cream is full of actual chunks of cooked lobster.
Photo: Portland Press Herald (Getty Images)
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3. Sweet Corn
We’d never think of it, but sweet corn isn’t the worst idea for an ice cream flavor. Available at Sweet Republic in Scottsdale, Arizona, this ice cream is pretty much sweet corn in sweet, ice cream form. We can get behind that.
Photo: Arx0nt (Getty Images)
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2. Cheetos
Big Gay Ice Cream in New York City is known for its unique takes on ice cream. One of its strangest is “Cheat-Oh’s,” a vanilla soft serve with a “hint” of cheese flavor dipped into Cheetos dust for a match made in ice cream (and cheese) heaven. It’s the best way to get your Cheetos fix without getting orange dust all over your fingers.
Photo: Juanmonino (Getty Images)
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1. Steak and Bourbon
We’ve heard of bacon and bourbon ice cream, but the creative people behind LongHorn Steakhouse added steak and bourbon ice cream to the menu last summer. This surprisingly good ice cream actually has chunks of steak jerky mixed in with swirls of bourbon caramel.
Photo: LongHorn Steak House
