The world has officially done away with unicorns, glitter and sprinkles. What we all crave in these trying times is a dessert that speaks to our inner darkness, and we finally have it. The summer of 2017 has ushered in the era of the goth ice cream and people simply cannot get enough.
Born out of small ice cream shops in the US such as Little Damage in Los Angeles, and Morgenstern’s in New York, goth ice cream has become a social media food trend.
It is difficult to nail down exactly why this goth dessert — which is basically black ice cream — is suddenly such a fad, when black sesame ice cream has existed in Japan for years, but one could guess that perhaps there is something moody, intriguing and offbeat about it, attracting people at a time when it is “cool” to be edgy.
Chef Koushik has brought it to Chennai for the first time, selling it at Sitcom - The Drama Diner in Neelankarai till the end of October.
Surprisingly, however, when asked what prompted him to introduce the dessert, Chef Koushik asserts that the current trend was not an influencing factor. “I know about the food trend, but trust me, this was not done because it was a trend. It was done because we wanted to do something with activated charcoal.”
The chef elaborates: “I’d been hearing things about activated charcoal. I remembered it as something I had as a kid. Typically, growing up in most villages, you had charcoal in some form or the other. In fact, we would get a solid whacking every time we put a piece into our mouth. It sounded interesting to put it (activated charcoal) in an ice cream, so we did.”
HYDERABAD ,TELANGANA, 01/03/2017: Charcoal Macaroons displayed at The Westin Hyderabad. Photo: Nagara Gopal
Despite Chef Koushik being quick to point out that the timing of the trend with his selling of the ice cream is mere coincidence, it doesn’t change the fact that Chennai can finally take a bite of this popular dessert. With a simple base of organic coconut milk, activated charcoal, and sugar, goth ice cream is actually easier to make than the other regular ice creams, according to the chef. “We start off with coconut milk. We have the activated charcoal going into it, and then we have the sugar going into it. We heat the coconut milk with the sugar to make it soluble. And then it goes into the ice cream machine and gets churned. It’s that simple,” he explains.
The key ingredient that gives it the unusual black colour — activated charcoal — has indeed sparked several health debates, but ultimately, like with most things in this world, the key to eating this is: moderation.
“I’m not asking anybody to eat a couple of kilos of activated charcoal. You probably get just a couple of grams going in with each scoop,” Chef Koushik says. The one challenge with this bizarre food trend, however, has been getting people to buy into it.
While many around the world get a kick out of eating something so unusually coloured, this is still a relatively new phenomenon in India, and Chef Koushik says that people are still getting used to the idea. “When they see black, it’s not a typical food colour. But those people who understand activated charcoal are trying it out. A lot of people taste it first and come back.” It is perfectly clear why people come back because, despite what the colour may suggest, goth ice cream is creamy and delicious. Chef Koushik describes the flavour as “coconut with a little bit of a gritty texture to it”.
In Hyderabad’s newly opened Dr Ice cream it is the goth ice cream which the grown ups like to pose with. When it opened in the city, the demand for a scoop of black ice cream was the highest. Why limit to ice cream alone? So, some chefs are also designing specific goth goodies such as macarons, breads and croissants.
