This summer, even the most traditional ice cream purveyors got inventive with the frozen sweet treat to create positively out-of-the-cone creations. From wine-infused pints to cream cheese and rye sandwiches, here are the weirdest ice cream desserts of the summer.
11. Pizza-Flavored Ice Cream
Photo: Courtesy of Coolhaus
Made with mascarpone, sun-dried tomatoes, olive oil, fresh basil, and salt, Coolhaus's pizza-flavored dessert is enjoyed year-round by fans of the Los Angeles-based ice cream shop.
10. Fat Elvis Grilled Freeze
Photo: Facebook
Canada's Rocky Point Ice Cream is to thank for this grilled brioche bun stuffed with chocolate ice cream, crunchy peanut sauce, strawberry jam, and sliced bananas.
9. Milky Buns
Photo: Facebook
Earlier this year, Afters Ice Cream in Orange County, California debuted their Milky Buns — warm, glazed doughnuts stuffed with ice cream. The frozen creation is so successful, the ice cream purveyor soon opened a location in Long Beach, quickly followed by three more.
8. Wine Ice Cream
Photo: Facebook
While Mercer's Dairy has been making wine ice cream since 2006, they only went mainstream last winter, bringing their boozy frozen treat to the national market. The wine-infused dessert has five percent alcohol-by-volume and comes in flavors like chocolate cabernet, red raspberry chardonnay, and cherry merlot.
7. J-Shaped Ice Cream Cone
Photo: Facebook
Available at New York City food truck Play J, these J-shaped cones are made from puffed corn and inspired by a Korean dessert. The phallic-shaped vessels — the weird shape is said to prevent dripping — can be filled with chocolate or vanilla ice cream.
6. Thai Ice Cream Sandwich
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/4072900/Thai_Ice_Cream_Sandwich.0.jpg)
Photo: Nick Solares
Called khanom pang ai tiim, this Thai version of the ice cream sandwich is found at popular Brooklyn eatery Pok Pok NY. The Thai restaurant makes the dessert by scooping coconut-jackfruit ice cream over sugary sticky rice that's stuffed inside a sweet Chinese bun.
5. Puffle Cone
Photo: Instagram
4. Glow in the Dark Ice Cream
Photo: Facebook
An Australian frozen treats company has come up with a way to create ice cream that glows in the dark. Melbourne-based shop 196 Below is known for its ice cream made with liquid nitrogen, but they are now injecting flavors with a "UV-reactive liquid colouring" that produces this cool effect.
Another creation from Los Angeles's Coolhaus ice cream shop is an entire menu of deli-inspired ice cream sandwiches that include flavors like potato latke and apple sauce, cream cheese and rye, and marbled rye cookie. They even have a pastrami ice cream made with real house-made caramelized pastrami.
2. Ice Cream Ramen
Photo: Courtesy of Cup Noodles
This strange concoction was created to celebrate the four millionth visitor to the Cup Noodles Museum in Yokohama, Japan. It's available in soy sauce and curry flavors and can be upgraded with ramen-inspired toppings like shrimp and green onions.
Photo: Facebook
One of the latest frozen trends to hit the U.S., Thai ice cream roll-ups, are found in New York's Chinatown at a small Mott Street shop called 10Below. (A few other shops also serve this treat now, too.) Fans line up for flavors like s'mores galore, matcha made in heaven, and honey boo boo.
Check out how they're made in this video: