Ice cream is awesome. On that, we all agree. But the flavors of our favorite frozen treat are ever-evolving, and we’re not always sure that’s a good thing. Savory ice cream, spicy ice cream, condiment-flavored ice cream? These might make for attention-grabbing Instagram pics, but our palates have other opinions. The sheer variety and insanity of today’s ice cream flavors make us long for the days when our choices were limited to chocolate or vanilla (and there’s really only one correct choice there, right?). These are the weirdest ice cream flavors, ranked! We dare you to try them.
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Weirdest Ice Cream Flavors
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12. Saffron Passionfruit with Apricot and Pistachio
We can cope with the passionfruit in this creation by New York-based OddFellows Ice Cream Co., but the rest of this flavor is a mashup of multiple ingredients we can't stand. This is more like the fruitcake of ice cream than a sweet treat. Hard pass.
Photo: @oddfellowsnyc on Instagram
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11. Sweet Summer Corn With BBQ Bourbon Caramel
Sweet corn with a rack of BBQ ribs is one of our favorite summer meals. But who would've thought those flavors belonged in ice cream? Apparently, California ice cream maker Humphry Slocombe did. This combo unites the popular yellow vegetable with swirls of BBQ bourbon caramel. Now all we need is a thick slab of meat to scoop it on.
Photo: @humphryslocombe on Instagram
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10. Goat Cheese With Red Cherries
We're guessing this flavor from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream was invented at some frou-frou dinner party, because there's just no way you'd want an ice cream that tastes like goat cheese and red cherries unless you were half in the bag and incredibly bored.
Photo: Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream
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9. Jalapeño Ranch Potato Chip Ice Cream
If you like a little kick -- and crunch -- in every bite of ice cream, this flavor is your jam. The heat of jalapeño paired with the creamy comfort of ranch sounds like a match made in ice cream heaven, albeit an odd one.
Photo: @maxandminas on Instagram
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8. Ghost Pepper
You literally have to sign a waver before you can put this ice cream down your gullet at The Ice Cream Store in Rehoboth, Delaware. While the vanilla ice cream base mixed with cinnamon and strawberry sounds mild, this flavor gets its fire from You Can't Handle This Hot Sauce, Heartbreaking Dawns 1841 Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce, Mad Dog 357 Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce, Da' Bomb Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce, and fresh Ghost Pepper. Wowza. We’re all for adventurous ice cream, but we’d rather not end up in the ER post-dessert.
Photo: teadough__ on Instagram
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7. Garlic
This strange flavor from the Garlic Shoppe in Gilroy, California, will certainly keep the vampires away, but we can't imagine anyone else wanting come near us after downing a pint of this ice cream. Maybe a mint ice cream chaser is in order?
Photo: JOSH EDELSON/AFP (Getty Images)
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6. Cheat-Ohs
Leave it to NYC's Big Gay Ice Cream to bring the shock and awe of ice cream to junk food addicts everywhere. The "Why didn't anyone think of this sooner?" flavor comes to life when vanilla and cheese ice cream is dipped in Cheetos dust. How long until they have a Flamin' Hot Cheetos flavor?
Photo: @biggayicecream on Instagram
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5. Spinach
This limited-edition green treat was inspired by comic book sailor Popeye in honor of Fleet Week. Vegan-friendly ice creamery Van Leeuwen concocted it with spinach, olive oil, sea salt and tumeric. We're pretty sure Popeye would not approve.
Photo: @vanleeuwenicecream on Instagram
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4. Mustard
This publicity stunt of an ice cream flavor was the brainchild of condiment maker French's and woman-founded creamery Coolhaus in honor of National Mustard Day (like that's a thing). Coolhaus was serving the flavor between a pair of pretzel cookies, but why do we feel like we should let it soften and dip a hot dog in it instead?
Photo: French's
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3. Viagra
Sometimes science does truly amazing things, but do we really want that innovation in our ice cream? Charlie Harry Francis, owner of Lick Me I'm Delicious, thought so. The Welsh inventor created the flavor as an ode to the little blue erectile dysfunction pill. While the treat does contain 25 milligrams of the drug, sadly, it's only available for celebrity clients. The average ice cream (and erectile-challenged) lover just can't get a break! We'll have to get our just desserts the old-fashioned way.
Photo: Wong Sze Fei / EyeEm (Getty Images)
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2. Mayo
ICE, a Scottish artisanal ice cream shop, came up with this infamous mayo-flavored frozen dessert. The ice cream did well on social media, but we're pretty sure no one could actually stomach this stuff IRL.
Photo: @ice_falkirk on Instagram
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1. Raw Horse Flesh
Someone was really horsing around when they created this flavor. If you want to get a taste, you'll have to book a flight to Tokyo, where Ice Cream City in the Sunshine City mall is home to many gag-inducing ice cream flavors, including this one, which is described as slightly sweet but "chewy." Good luck keeping this "horsey sauce" down.
Photo: Pinterest
