A scoop of vanilla or a bowl of choc-chip ice cream is all very nice, but there’s plenty of scope for ice cream to get a whole lot more interesting. We’re talking colourful, Willy Wonka–style creations, ice cream with savoury ingredients folded through, scoops rolled in crushed Cheetos and flavours you're more likely to find on dinner plates than in cones. These outrageous ice creams are beautiful and bizarre, and we’ve ranked them from weird to weirdest, counting down to the most shocking of all.
Click or scroll through our gallery to discover the strangest ice cream flavours ever. Which ones would you try?
We've based our ranking on the strangeness of each ice cream flavour, and on the opinions of our well-travelled (and well-fed) team. The list is unavoidably subjective.
This quirky spot uses liquid nitrogen in its production process, resulting in a seriously rich, wonderfully creamy and impressively dense ice cream base. The indulgence doesn’t stop there. Amongst an array of decadent flavours, the fan-favourite crème brûlèe comes complete with a crackly layer of burnished torched sugar. It’s up to you whether you enjoy it by the scoop, pint or in an ice cream sandwich.
Portland-based Fifty Licks is known for its unconventional, experimental flavours, though never for gimmicks – these creations are all about the taste. An enduring favourite is the mango sticky rice flavour, which features a jasmine rice and coconut milk ice cream base swirled through with Alphonso mango. Other unusual scoops on the menu include cornbread ice cream, which comes with chunks of cornbread and a drizzle of honey butter.
When summer rolls around, Max and Mina's starts cranking out corn-based ice cream. But they don't settle for plain ol' corn on the cob flavour. At Max and Mina's, they put corn into every conceivable cone. There's salted caramel corn, butter corn, pickled corn and chilli lime corn. And that's before they add corn to cookies 'n' cream and blueberry loaf cakes, as well as mixing it with dates, figs, cashews and peanut butter to make another tasty bake. It's a cornucopia of corn-based goods – and customers look forward to it every year.
Based in South West Australia, creamery Simmo’s has the perfect treat for when you’re craving ice cream with a kick. Whisky meets dessert in this fun dish that mixes mascarpone ice cream with plump, whisky-soaked prunes and finishes things off with a whisky ripple. Think rum and raisin, but boozier, bolder and better. This one is a local favourite, although there are plenty of other interesting (and more kid-friendly) options, including Mango Tango and Yum Yum Blue Bubblegum.
Tin Pot Creamery's ice creams are available in grocery stores all over the US and the brand is known for its French-style creations. Classics such as mint chocolate chip and vanilla bean sit alongside matcha green tea and lavender with lemon-poppy cookies. Most innovative – and prettiest – of all is the delicate blue jasmine tea. It started as a limited-edition flavour, but was so popular it has been added to the ‘forever menu’.
Vegan pop-up ice creamery Sassi Ice Cream can be found at various festivals and events across Adelaide. The Sassi team has acquired a following for its unique vegan offering and is known for recreating traditional Middle Eastern recipes. The ice creams are intended to evoke the feeling of wandering through a heady Middle Eastern bazaar. Among all the creamy, dreamy, richly spiced combinations, sage and pomegranate swirl is particularly popular.
Cute ice cream and sweet shop Mary’s Milk Bar is well-loved for its delicious gelato, which ranges from the traditional to the truly innovative. Each ice cream is made by hand that morning, and flavours don’t just change by the season, but by the day. There’s always something interesting on offer here, from goats’ cheese and fig to smoked paprika and peanut butter, not forgetting spicy-sweet cumin and mango ripple.
The menu at il laboratorio del gelato looks like a paint colour chart – there are so many vivid and unusual creations on offer. The visionary shop opened in 2002 and has been committed to whipping up unique frozen treats ever since. If you’re looking for an ice cream more unusual, top picks include the pumpkin, Cheddar cheese and tarragon flavours. The tarragon scoop is a pastel-coloured number that brings warm and delicate aniseed notes to the party.
Where do goths go for ice cream? If they happen to be in Los Angeles, it has to be Little Damage. The shop is famous for its black waffle cones, made with activated charcoal for a striking effect. They’re topped with soft-serve ice cream in flavours that are constantly rotating and chosen specifically to pop vividly against the dark cones. Regularly reappearing varieties include lemon velvet and the shop’s original flavour, almond charcoal (right).
Magnolia Ice Cream has been making ice cream since 1925, whipping up an array of frozen treats that offer a proper taste of nostalgia to its legions of fans in the Philippines. Halo-halo, inspired by the beloved dessert of the same name, is one of its bestselling flavours, thanks to a rich, refreshing mix of condensed milk, tropical fruits and sweetened red beans. The brand has gone global, and you can find tubs of Magnolia ice cream in many Asian supermarkets across North America.
Cape Town’s Tapi Tapi is all about revolutionising traditional ice cream flavours. The brainchild of Tapiwa Guzha, who first arrived in the city as a student from Zimbabwe, this parlour is nothing short of spectacular, with creations that reflect Africa’s culinary heritage and incorporate unique ingredients. Amongst the array of complex flavours, you’ll find options such as edible clay and biscuits, and imphepho (a South African plant similar to sage) smoke and rooibos tea.
Jeni's, which has shops across the US, has released more than its share of insanely good ice cream flavours. This includes buttercream birthday cake, which comes complete with chunks of sponge, frosting and rainbow sprinkles. But the everything bagel flavour perhaps beats the lot, bringing us bagel ‘gravel’ (sesame, poppy seeds, onions and garlic), schmeared through subtly sweet cream cheese ice cream.
Der Verruckte Eismacher – The Crazy Ice Cream Maker – is an experiential ice cream shop in Munich with a taste for fun. Founder Matthias Münz can often be found serving up scoops dressed in a top hat, bow tie and red coat. The Margherita pizza flavour (complete with mozzarella and tomatoes) is a firm favourite with fans. One of the other mad-cap creations is called MiMiMi because its ingredients include the unlikely combo of mineral water, mint and mussels.
Think ham doesn't go with ice cream? Think again. Windy Brow Farms has taken a New Jersey classic – Taylor Ham, or pork roll – and incorporated it into a sweet treat. The processed pork, which is mixed with cinnamon and sugar, adds a salty kick to sweet maple ice cream. This brunch-inspired flavour has been a crowd-pleaser since the fruit farm released it as part of its Only in Jersey range, which originally also included sweetcorn and honey and tomato pie.
Tomato is a favoured ingredient at The Creole Creamery, which has three locations in Louisiana and one in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. The Creole tomato sorbet – a sweet but tangy flavour that makes the most of locally grown produce – is a seasonal staple. Other tomato-infused concoctions have included Alotta Burrata, a cheese-based scoop swirled with strawberry-tomato jam (pictured).
Van Leeuwen is renowned for its collabs, bringing fans wacky-flavoured tubs that sell for a few weeks only. Previous flavours included a Kraft macaroni and cheese ice cream, a mystery flavour for Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and, most recently, an espresso ice cream inspired by Sabrina Carpenter's hit song of the same name. But the Hidden Valley Ranch ice cream, based on the creamy salad dressing, was perhaps the weirdest flavour to date. Most tubs are short-lived launches, but the buttermilk berry cornbread and praline butter cake made their way onto the permanent menu.
Salt & Straw is known for its kooky ice cream creations and its most innovative and unusual offerings crop up as part of its annual Thanksgiving series. The flavours vary a little each year, with 2023’s ‘dinner’ including turkey stuffing and cranberry sauce, Parker House rolls with salted buttercream, cheesy potato casserole, a vegan pumpkin and gingersnap pie and Mom's Mango Pie, a collab with musician Hrishikesh Hirway. The small chain mainly has shops on the West Coast, plus a few in Florida.
In 2018, Ireland’s Gelati Ice Cream captured public attention when it launched a limited-edition Heinz Tomato Ketchup flavour ice cream in honour of an Ed Sheeran concert (the musician’s love of the condiment is well-known). While the tangy, tomatoey ice cream flavour didn’t last, it put Gelati firmly in the spotlight. The brand has a reputation for constantly coming up with new flavours, including mayonnaise, every chocolate bar you can think of, and an odd barbecue sauce number.
It sounds outrageous and, well, it is. But Cheat-Ohs – soft-serve ice cream rolled in crushed Cheetos – is a regular fixture on the specials board at Big Gay Ice Cream, which has three locations in New York City. The cheese puff creation understandably proved a huge social media hit when it first appeared a few years ago. Its frequent return is testament to the fact that the combination of sweet and salty is actually rather delicious.
Filipino cuisine is characterised by its mastery of sweet and salty combinations and Manila-based artisan ice cream shop Sebastian’s Ice Cream sells some of the most unique mixes we’ve come across. That includes ube and queso (a blended mix of purple yam and cheese) and the really rather unusual champorado and dilis flavour (pictured). That's a chocolate pudding ice cream topped with salty, crunchy, candied anchovies.
Despite the name, Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium is most famous for its lobster ice cream. Yep, this spot has been serving scoops studded with one of New England's most adored seafood delicacies since 1988. If you don’t fancy sampling the delight that is chunks of lobster folded into butter-infused ice cream, you can always try bubble gum, root beer or the range of coffee flavours. There’s a second location at Oak Bluffs on Martha’s Vineyard.
Anya Hindmarch is best known for her fashion accessories but every summer since 2022 she's curated a wildly popular ice cream pop-up in London. Called The Ice Cream Project, the store serves up cone after cone of weird flavours inspired by Hindmarch's favourite store cupboard staples. So think pesto and malt vinegar flavours instead of anything sweet from the freezer. The most eye-catching ice cream has to be the Heinz Baked Beans flavour. The shop says it's 'rich, sweet and brimming with protein'.
The much-lauded, Michelin-star restaurant Labyrinth, which specialises in modern Singaporean cooking, serves one of the country’s most-loved savoury dishes in frozen dessert form. Its chilli crab ice cream features a beguiling mix of softshell crab and coconut that not only gets customers talking, but ranks as one of the restaurant’s most popular dishes.
High-end French ice cream manufacturer Philippe Faur is known for its long list of flavours, ranging from the classic to the truly eccentric. In 2002, the company debuted a savoury selection to be sold on rotation along with its more traditional treats. There are luxury flavours galore on that list, including a caviar option made from white sturgeon caviar. The experts at Philippe Faur advise serving it with smoked salmon, scallops or a baked potato for the ultimate high-low combo.
Now a cult classic in Germany, spaghetti eis was invented in the late 1960s. The novelty sundae that replicates a plate of pasta was the brainchild of the son of an Italian immigrant who ran a gelato parlour in Mannheim and consists of strands of vanilla ice cream swimming in a bright-red strawberry sauce (a nod to tomato-based pasta sauce) and topped with white chocolate shavings (intended to resemble Parmesan).
London-based company Lick Me I’m Delicious is known for creating experimental food installations and weird and wonderful gadgets, including a nitro ice cream parlour. The portable nitro food lab was designed to concoct crazy-tasting treats on the go; think dark port and stilton and wasabi and honey ice cream. Its most impressive creation has to be a glow-in-the-dark jellyfish ice cream, made from jellyfish proteins. It lit up when licked and, understandably, went viral when it launched back in 2013.