On a sweltering day, there's nothing better than cooling yourself down with a scoop of HP Sauce or Heinz beans ice cream.
Hold the phone, something's not right here...
The Ice Cream Project — a pop up summer store in Anya Hindmarch's The Village, Belgravia — is selling madcap-flavoured scoops this summer.
Vanilla, rum and raisin, and mint choc chip are nowhere to be seen — instead, you'll choose from a list that includes Heinz salad cream, Kikkoman Soy Sauce and PG Tips.
It's actually not hard to imagine some of these flavours being rather excellent: Polo sorbet sounds altogether refreshing; why hasn't Coco Pops ice cream been a thing before now; and as for golden syrup ice cream — pretty sure we invented that as a seven-year-old anyway.
The more, shall we say challenging, flavours on the menu include Lea & Perrins (a sweet tomato fruit sorbet with a splash of Worcestershire sauce, which might actually work), mayonnaise ("surprising rich and creamy ice cream with the zestiness of lemon and tang of vinegar" — er OK) and HP Sauce, which the Houses of Parliament should frankly outlaw.
That said, a supercool episode of history podcast You're Dead to Me revealed that ice cream was originally all sorts of 'wacky' flavours — including parmesan — while Heston Blumenthal rewrote the rulebooks with his bacon ice cream a few years back — so maybe The Ice Cream Project isn't so outlandish after all.
As for the baked beans ice cream? Our minds are cast back to when the Londonist office was sent a box of baked bean truffles. Still haven't quite recovered from those. Still think it might've been a hoax.
Whichever flavour you choose, do so wisely — it'll set you back a whopping £10 for each ice cream tub (although scoops are available at £3.50 each).
The Ice Cream Project, The Village, until 28 August 2022
