BERLIN (AP): Which flavor of ice cream is your favorite? Plain simple chocolate or vanilla, how about some berries? What about some dried brown crickets on top? If your response was not immediate disgust, you might be in luck as a German ice cream parlor has expanded its menu with a skin-crawling offering: cricket-flavored scoops with dried brown crickets on top.
The unusual confection is available at Thomas Micolino’s store in southern Germany’s town of Rottenburg am Neckar, German news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) reported Thursday.
Micolino habitually creates flavors far outside Germans’ specific preferences for strawberry, chocolate, banana and vanilla ice cream.
In the past, he’s offered liver sausage, Gorgonzola cheese ice cream, and gold-plated ice cream for 4 euros ($4.25) per scoop.
“I am an inquisitive person and want to try everything,” Micolino told dpa. “I’ve eaten a lot of things, including many strange things, and crickets were something I still wanted to try, also in the form of ice cream.”
That he can now produce the cricket flavor is due to a European Union regulation that allows the use of insects in food.
Under the regulation, crickets may be frozen, dried, or used as a powder. The EU already allowed migratory locusts and flour beetle larvae as a food additive, dpa reported.
Micolino’s ice cream is made of cricket flour, heavy cream, vanilla extract, and honey, and he tops it with dried whole crickets. It has a “surprising yummy taste” – or at least that’s what he wrote on Instagram.
The creative vendor says that while some people are disgusted and upset that he offers insect ice cream, curious customers have mostly liked the new flavor.
“Those who try it are very enthusiastic,” Micolino said. “I have customers who come here daily and buy a scoop.”
One of his customers, Konstantin Dick, gave the cricket-infused flavor a positive review, telling dpa: “Yes, it’s delicious and edible.”
Another customer, Johann Peter Schwarze, praised the ice cream’s creamy consistency but added, “you can still sense the cricket in the ice cream.”
