Sparky's Homemade Ice Cream sold out of its only batch of the insect-filled dessert within hours of its June 1 debut.
Employees collected the cicadas in their backyards and removed most of the dead insects' wings. They then boiled the insects and covered them in brown sugar and milk chocolate. The base ice cream is brown sugar and butter flavour.
Environmental health chief Gerry Worley, of the Columbia County Department of Public Health, says the agency's food code "doesn't directly address cicadas" and that he has advised against using the insects as an ingredient.
Slightly less wacky, perhaps, are some other unusual flavours hitting the United States ice cream market this northern summer, such as French Toast ice cream, Buttered Popcorn or Strawberry Basil, or even a sundae with bacon bits.
Summer is when ice cream eateries notch up to 70% of their sales, and the purpose of all the offbeat flavours is to lure people into the store, even though most will sample the new but buy the old.
Seven out of 10 consumers buy vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, says Howard Waxman, editor of Ice Cream Reporter, but the remaining three in 10 are "where the real battle for profitability is fought."
Other new offbeat flavours include Late Night Snack (made with chocolate-covered potato chips and caramel); Mojito Sorbet (no alcohol, but a hint of mint and lime) and Creole Cream Cheese, made with a cream-cheese-like base and a spicy kick.
- MCT/AP
