The ice cream of the future is here, and it has a nipple
Remember when Dippin’ Dots hit? All the kids thought the future held flying cars and ice cream made out of tiny lint balls. Well, let’s just say a new bar has been set for the future of frozen treats. And it’s right in line with the hottest trend in design.
As part of this week’s London Design Festival, whimsical food design agency Bompas & Parr threw a competition for ice-cream mold designs. The competition caps off its summertime exhibition SCOOP at the British Museum of Food, which looked at the once-popular dessert mold. “Ice cream and sorbets have an aristocratic history in Europe due to the high costs associated with ingredients and keeping things frozen,” Bompas & Parr explains on its website. “In the past, eating ice cream and sorbet was reserved for royalty and the very wealthy and serving it in moulds represented the pure zenith of the craft. A banquet in 1714, hosted by the Austrian ambassador to Rome in honor of Empress Elisabetta Cristina, included five tables of towering pyramids of moulded sorbets, a large vase made of milk-colored ice, and a tree holding 150 frozen moulded fruit sorbets set in a chocolate ‘soil.’”
The firm also invited the public to propose their own designs for molds, the three winners of which would be produced in a one-off run for sale at the end of the show. The firm’s own creation was a frozen popsicle that doesn’t melt in extreme heat, but the winners of their competition are worth a look, as well:
[Photo: Bompas & Parr]
In third place came Bubble-icious, by Michele Menescardi. The design is meant to resemble a soap bar, but this bar tastes like sweet pineapple and basil rather than bile and curse words. Once you’re done with the frozen treat, you’re left with, not a popsicle stick, but a bubble wand that’s been hiding inside. You’ll need to acquire your own bubble fluid, though.
In second place, Mouth Toys: Ice Lollie, by designer Estela Glass, above. Inspired by Mexican paletas–frozen fruit popsicles–it’s spherical and textured rather than the boring, flat bubble-tape-for-your-tongue variety popsicle. Its flavor? Turkish-dondurma-elastic cherry.
And in first place, Homage to the Breast, by designer and artist Sally Reynolds. In this case, the homage to the thing is the thing. It’s “inspired by classical sculptures of Roman origins,” Bompas & Parr’s release explains. “The design plays on the power of the currency of women in the days of royalty and a nod to the beauty of the female figure. The resulting flavor will be rose masala chai–a sensual vanilla gelato with rose syrup & chai spice.”
Honestly, that does sounds delicious. But when tasting it in public, be sure to use a spoon.
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