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Japan Is Selling Ice Cream That Doesn't Melt
- wongarsu 9y agoThe time-lapse they link shows the ice-cream almost immediately starting to melt. It is pretty incredible, and the ice-cream seems to keep its shape for hours despite melting, and apparently melts slower than regular ice cream. No need to ruin it by vastly over-hyping it in the title.
- Powerofmene 9y agoThis is much like the Great Value brand ice cream sandwiches that did not melt for hours when left in the sun. The more cream in an ice cream product the faster it melts. In some cases slow melting may not be a good thing.
- kpil 9y agoTrue. The wallpaper paste "ice creams" just get skin on the outside... It's surprising that people doesn't recognize quality. Eg Ben & Jerry's seems to be popular but I never found one that wasn't made of too much low quality candy in cheap ice cream.
- derekp7 9y agoThe reason Ben and Jerry's became popular is because they were one of the first mass market ice creams that came in a bunch of unique flavors and add-ins.
- mobilefriendly 9y agoThey were popular before they were mass market.
- sosborn 9y agoDefine 'quality.' The point of food is to enjoy it. Others seem to enjoy Ben and jerrys even though you don't. It isn't a 'shame,' it's just circumstance.
- libeclipse 9y agoExactly. It's all about taste. I think that comment was a little condescending. Personally I love Ben & Jerry's, and it's a little offensive that you think I "don't recognize quality" and I "only like it because it was first to market". Allow that, it tastes God damned brilliant, and you can't take away from that.
- mattmaroon 9y agoI'd say there are subjective and objective indicators of quality, and that just because a lot of people like it doesn't make it a quality product, at least from a certain standpoint. Bud light is not a quality product from a flavor or obedient standpoint, but in terms of price, consistency, and marketing it's great. But as someone who knows something about ice cream, I'd say B&J is a relatively high quality product. They use mostly good ingredients and that used to be very rare of nationally distributed ice cream.
- chrisseaton 9y ago> Bud light is not a quality product from a flavor ... standpoint Says who? Who can tell everyone else what their preferred flavours should be?
- icebraining 9y agoNobody is doing that. I, for example, like plenty of things that I recognize as low quality.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- drdeca 9y agoI'm not entirely sure that aesthetic realism isn't true. Which, that's not to say that if someone were to have a different taste than the "objectively correct one" (assuming that one did exist) that they would be wrong to have it, but I consider it to plausible that someone's tastes (e.g. mine) could be in some proper sense, "incorrect". There are a number of topics where I feel like, if aesthetic realism is true, my personal tastes probably do not really match up with the true taste.
- ghaff 9y agoI'm not convinced any of the national premium brands are all that great. I tend to agree on Ben and Jerry's. To my taste, most of their flavors are way too gimmicky. I have a local ice cream place near where I live. I rarely buy ice cream from the supermarket any longer.
- drewmol 9y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeni%27s_Splendid_Ice_Creams https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeni%27s_Splendid_Ice_Creams Check out Jeni's for a premium brand that has some national distribution, as well as direct to consumer shipping from their website. It's $$$, but I used to be an ice cream connoisseur of sorts, and I think it lives up to the hype.
- ghaff 9y agoNot sure I've ever noticed them but will keep my eyes open. Thanks.
- mattmaroon 9y agoIt's local to me. Great ice cream but she doesn't use eggs and to my taste a good ice cream with eggs just has a richness Jeni's lacks. Her Uganda vanilla ice cream loses hands down to just a classic vanilla ice cream, made lovingly, with egg yolks, even though her beans cost 10x as much.
- drewmol 9y agoGood point, but I thought traditionally 'Ice Cream' was w/o eggs, with eggs was 'Frozen Custard'. I prefer vanilla w/o eggs, but chocolatey flavors I prefer custard.
- ghaff 9y agoI'm not sure there's any consistent nomenclature. With eggs vs. without is sometimes called French Vanilla vs. just Vanilla. But you'll find plenty of Vanilla recipes with yolks just called Vanilla. And for other flavors, you'll find tons of recipes with yolks still called ice cream. You're technically correct but I'm not sure how widely used "frozen custard" is.
- koolba 9y agoAre you referring to Walmart store brand ice cream sandwiches?
- Powerofmene 9y agoYes, Great Value is the WalMart store brand.
- zappo2938 9y agoThey use seaweed to keep the shape. [0] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrageenan#Production https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrageenan#Production
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- computerex 9y agoYou got that backwards. > Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream. Ice cream with more cream will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/walmarticecream.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/walmarticecream.asp
- Powerofmene 9y agoYou are Corerect. I knew what I wanted to say then turned around and said it completely backwards. Thank you for correcting my error. "Why didn’t it melt? According to Sean O’Keefe, a professor and food chemist at Virginia Tech, the more cream—meaning fat—ice cream has in it, the faster it melts. Nonfat ice cream takes longer to melt than fatty ice cream because it has more water in it. “More water means the ice cream will have to absorb more energy before it can melt. Also, low-fat ice creams tend to have more air whipped into them, which allows them to keep their shape longer,” according to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette summarizing O’Keefe’s explanation. When asked about its ice cream sandwich’s stubborn refusal to melt, Walmart gave a different, slightly less profound explanation: “Ice cream melts based on the ingredients including cream. Ice cream with more cream will generally melt at a slower rate, which is the case with our Great Value ice cream sandwiches.” Walmart’s Great Value ice cream sandwiches contain corn syrup, guar gum, and cellulose gum—all ingredients that could also contribute to their failure to melt. Häagen-Dazs ice cream doesn’t have any corn syrup or “gums of any type,” said WCPO. For the record, according to the FDA, it’s safe to eat ice cream with corn syrup and those “gums”—though maybe not after it has spent 12 hours in the sun."
- a_c 9y ago"But the Kanazawa Ice retained its original shape even after five minutes. It also tasted cool." video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-lc6ZnWLo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sA-lc6ZnWLo
- scotth 9y agoBut does it melt in your mouth?
- anotheryou 9y agoThis is the essential property of ice and choclate, I also wondered.
- grabcocque 9y agoI wouldn't let the fact that many polyphenols are known to be carcinogenic, mutagenic and genotoxic get in the way of enjoying so Mr Softee, now would I?
- CrystalGamma 9y agoThat's what my first thought was when reading about the “miracle ingredient”, and I am confused why no other comments here mention this.
- biotech 9y agoCould you post the research that implicates polyphenols in cancer? I could not find any in-vivo studies linking polyphenols to cancer in a quick search. A review article from 2017 states the opposite in fact: "...polyphenols in particular have gained considerable attention as chemopreventive agents against different types of cancer." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28807562 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28807562
- blincoln 9y agoThese polyphenols are from strawberries. Tannic acid (like one is exposed to when drinking tea), and grapes also contain polyphenols. If polyphenols as a whole were really dangerous, it seems like it would be pretty obvious by now.
- anfractuosity 9y agoWhich polyphenols in particular are you referring to out of interest? As far as I understand there's plenty present in hops: "although added in 100 times lesser quantity than malt, it can account for 30% of total beer polyphenols" https://cdn.uclouvain.be/public/Exports%20reddot/inbr/documents/Polyphenols_and_Beer_Quality_final.pdf https://cdn.uclouvain.be/public/Exports%20reddot/inbr/docume... And I've never heard of any issues with those with respect to cancer.
- cmurf 9y agoBy "doesn't melt" they mean it doesn't liquefy. It goes from a solid when frozen, to something that looks whipped/gelatinous when room temperature.
- dasil003 9y agoWhich frankly seems super gross to me.
- cmurf 9y agoI think the idea is that it just doesn't make a mess, but it might also have advantages refreezing from a semi-thawed state. Might have positive implications for shipping/distribution where a crate of ice cream sits at a loading dock for just a wee bit too much time before making it into freezers.
- pixelcloud 9y ago"but it might also have advantages refreezing from a semi-thawed state" If that is a concern, you are eating ice cream the wrong way!!
- dasil003 9y agoIt also has commercial disadvantages though, such as the fact that even if it never gets warm, I'll be too grossed out just by the thought of what it's like when it warms up that I'll never buy any.
- cwyers 9y agoThat's not ice cream and it melts.
- jackcosgrove 9y agoThis adds a whole new twist to the phrase "vanilla ice cream".
- coldtea 9y agoReminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLHRjaUBb3o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLHRjaUBb3o
- droidist2 9y agoI just got a craving for astronaut ice cream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_ice_cream https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeze-dried_ice_cream
- unicornporn 9y agoToo bad slightly melt ice cream tastes a lot better. I usually wait 10 minutes in warm weather before eating the ice cream.
- coldtea 9y agoI guess they were going for the other 99.999% of the market.
- Young_God 9y agoMy friend actually microwaves his for a few seconds to get it really creamy. Having it not melt in your mouth is definitely a downside.
- tpush 9y agoIs American ice cream different from other countries when it comes to melting? When I carry ice cream in warm weather(Germany) it melts to a puddle in about ~4 minutes.
- digi_owl 9y agoHaving seen Americans discuss food online for years i can't help but think that their processed food make European processed food seem almost farm fresh.
- coldtea 9y agoThat's somewhat accurate. But the preference for "melted ice-cream" is clearly an outlier opinion, regardless.
- p49k 9y agoI think that Europeans often have a skewed idea of American food, comparing modern European food to what American food was like 30 years ago. Every major brand of food in the US has been on a continuous cycle of improvement, reducing artificial ingredients and processing, and restaurants have done the same. And it's not like American fast food isn't extremely popular in Europe too.
- booleandilemma 9y ago"When heat from a dryer was applied in an air-conditioned room, a vanilla popsicle that was purchased from a regular shop began melting around the edges almost instantly," according to the intrepid reporter. "But the Kanazawa Ice retained its original shape even after five minutes. It also tasted cool." Am I the only one that thought of the LOTR scene with Gandalf holding out the ring to Frodo after putting it in the fire and telling him "it's quite cool"?
- prettygenius 9y agoWe already have those: awful ice creams loaded up with way too many stabilizers and gums (guar gum, etc.). There was a video about them not too long ago when a woman was freaked out about how her Walmart ice-cream sandwiches took hours to melt in 90F heat. Spoiler alert, they're not even close to as good as ice creams that aren't loaded to the gills with stabilizers.
- circlingthesun 9y agoReminds me of Ali G's ice cream glove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TR0vUPQCs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48TR0vUPQCs
- dangero 9y agoYeah my first thought was I believe Donald Trump was the person who came up with the idea for drip proof icecream (when talking to Ali G)
- tdeck 9y agoMy brother did a science experiment in 5th grade to see which ice cream melted the fastest, and I remember staring at one of them (I think it was Turkey Hill) because it never seemed to melt. It just turned into a white foam.
- Mikeb85 9y agoYou can prevent melting with a bunch of stabilisers but it's not a better product. Part of the fun of ice cream is the fact it melts.
- chiefalchemist 9y agoYup. It ain't ice cream if it doesn't melt. It's something else.
- bitmapbrother 9y agoThe ice cream, with strawberry polyphenol added to it, does melt eventually. It just takes prolongs its structure longer than ice cream without it. I also like the fact that the ingredient used is natural and not some man made chemical.
- jwilk 9y agoAsbestos is also natural, but you wouldn't want it in your ice cream.
- Agathos 9y agoGuar gum is also natural. It's extracted from guar beans. And it's widely used (and overused) in lots of US ice cream brands.
- duncan_bayne 9y agoYou know that plutonium is naturally occurring too, right? https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natures-nuclear-reactors-the-2-billion-year-old-natural-fission-reactors-in-gabon-western-africa/ https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/natures-nucl...
- m0ckingb1rd 9y agoYup, melting is part of fun of having an ice cream
- neves 9y agoI don't think you live in a tropical country where it is usual to have 40ºC in summer:-). I'd really enjoy 10 minutes more enjoying my ice cream.
- orthoganol 9y agoI had non melting ice cream in Shanghai, at a relatively overpriced/ touristy, outdoor seating restaurant. It felt like I was eating some weird synthesized product from a lab. It didn't taste very good either. There is no reason for us to go in this direction. Edit - whelp, after insulting religious institutions on the Muzzmatch thread, I have been defaulted to the bottom of comment threads, despite upvotes. That's happened to all my comments since then, when they used to be defaulted at top and usually hung around there. Hopefully it's temporary? May be in for a karma winter.
- PhasmaFelis 9y agoSometimes the mods will revoke those things if you talk to them about it. Still bloody annoying that they use adversarial stealth tactics on people who are arguing in good faith, but there you go. In any case, I remember the Muzzmatch thread, and taking any excuse to preach at people is no more appealing in atheists than it is in theists.
- chickenbane 9y agoWalmart also sells ice cream that doesn't melt. Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/walmarticecream.asp http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/walmarticecream.asp Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SozZHZAWS64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SozZHZAWS64
- vittore 9y agoYou beat me on this comment with exactly the same youtube link!
- subwayclub 9y agoMy first thought was: Dippin' Dots, the ice cream of the future.
- mattmaroon 9y agoUnless that secret ingredient has some insulating properties, the "tasting cool" is almost certainly a visual effect. I'd love to see a triangle test where blindfolded people tried to pick out the warm one. I'd bet they'd be damn near 100%.
- KayL 9y agoIs it snow skin mooncake with ice cream appearance? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_skin_mooncake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_skin_mooncake
- bsder 9y agoIf this keeps water and oil bound together, how can this not affect taste and especially smell? The whole point of taste and especially smell is being triggered by specific molecules upon dissociation.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- guiseroom 9y agoNow if they could figure out how to keep it cold without refrigeration.
- magoon 9y agoI know this is going to be unpopular, but my family spends more on the Haagen Dazs because it's one of the only actual real ice creams without the guar gum and other fillers. I looked at the ingredients of so many brands in the grocery store before realizing.
- josefresco 9y agoSame here - wife shops for us and reads labels closely. She/we won't buy the cheap stuff because of the ingredients.
- Dylan16807 9y agoGuar gum is just a thickener. What's the actual filler material?
- pixelcloud 9y agoBreyers Vanilla Frozen Dessert (because they legally cannot call it icecream). MODIFIED MILK INGREDIENTS, SUGAR, WATER, GLUCOSE, COCONUT OIL, NATURAL VANILLA FLAVOUR, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, VEGETABLE GUMS (GUAR, CAROB BEAN), CARRAGEENAN, NATURAL COLOUR. Haagen-Dazs Vanilla ingredients: cream, skim milk, cane sugar, egg yolks, vanilla extract.
- crispweed 9y agoPersonally (ignoring sugars) the 'MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES' is the bit I try to avoid, not worrying so much about the gums. Mono- and diglycerides of fatty acids: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono-_and_diglycerides_of_fatty_acids https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mono-_and_diglycerides_of_fatt... Seems like this replaces hydrogenated oils across a whole range of products, and I'm suspicious that it's just a way to avoid public concerns about hydrogenated oils by replacing them with something similar just without the same stigma. Quick search found this article, which states some more specific concerns, if in a rather extreme way: https://foodbabe.com/2015/07/31/theres-no-safe-level-ingredient-almost-everything/ https://foodbabe.com/2015/07/31/theres-no-safe-level-ingredi... (but of course you can search and find similar concerns about many things, doesn't make them true).
- oculusthrift 9y agoa little offtopic but i find it weird we say "japan" when we really mean some company within japan.
- hristov 9y agoOk I did not read the article but if Japan has invented ice 9 (as seems to be the case from the title), run for the hills, we are all screwed.
- quickthrower2 9y agoWhat is ice 9? They mention Polyphenol
- sewer_bird 9y agoIt's a plot device from Kurt Vonnegut's book "Cat's Cradle". It's a good read if you're looking for a recommendation
- soyiuz 9y agoThe worst (for my taste) is Mister Softee, common among New York ice cream trucks. It tastes like plastic foam and does not melt well. I'll prefer the cream-based five ingredients any day.
- nnq 9y agoMy chemistry is very rusty but, there seems to be a short road from polyphenols to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs - the stuff you might use in a laboratory to produce cancers (!!!) in order to study them)... or am I wrong? I won't be so keen of increased usage of food additive that get easily transformed into proven carcinogen compounds when some stupid cook or food producer decides to "deep fry the ice-cream cookies" or some other stupid shit like that sounds unhealthy but harmless... Even if the compound itself is healthy in its natural combination, I imagine the percent in strawberries is low, and humans' propensity to fry, prolonged bake, or grill & smoke a strawberry concentrate is low, whereas if you start using this additive on a wide scale and it ends up in all sorts of other products...
- falsedan 9y agoFUD
- mrmondo 9y agoI’d like to see some scientific studies with decent citation (and potentially well sized sample sizes) around the health impacts of eating / digesting said compound. IMO there is a huge difference in taste between ‘simple’ ice cream recipes vs complex highly manufactured ice cream, I’m weary of adding another state controlling compound to the mix.
- throwawaymanbot 9y agowalmart has had this cheap Ice Cream that does not melt for years. I usually avoid giving it to children.