Ice Cream That Doesn't Melt

A Chinese brand dubbed the "Hermes of ice cream" from an upscale ice cream company, Zhong Xue Gao, is taking heat after a video on Weibo shows how their frozen desserts just won't melt no matter how hot it gets! 

Videos showing Chicecream's ice creams staying solid when lighters were held to them went viral, revealing they did not fully melt when left in a 31 degree Celsius room for an hour or under a very hot flame. The footage sparked consternation online, prompting users to question the company's high prices and whether the products were overloaded with additives. 

The post inspired others to conduct melt-tests, with one holding a lighter flame to the un-meltable ice cream, and another person aiming a kitchen torch toward the frozen dessert, which pretty much stayed intact! 

As the debate around the quality of their supposedly high-end ice cream grew – it can cost up to $10 for the most expensive – the company eventually came out with a statement to hopefully put customers' minds at ease. They claimed to use a 'viscosity-enhancing agent' to prevent the ice cream from melting easily – but assured everyone that their product still meets the national food safety standards. 

According to the company, the ice cream in question is mainly made of milk (35.8 percent), light cream (19.2 percent), coconut milk (11.2 percent), and sweetened condensed milk (7.4 percent), and whole milk powder (6 percent). It contains more than 40 percent solid matter, which is 20 percent higher than the national standard. 

Anyway, the company conceded that carrageenan, an extract from a red seaweed commonly known as Irish Moss (Chondrus crispus), has been added “to improve the consistency of the ice cream. Therefore, it will not disperse like water after melting. Meaning, the ice cream softens but is relatively viscous and still formed.

The edible seaweed (right) is native to the British Isles, where it's been used in traditional cooking for hundreds of years. It's also widely used in the food industry, mostly as a thickener and gelling agent. 

South China Morning Post reported local regulator the Shanghai Market Supervision and Management Bureau as saying on Tuesday that they were aware of the videos and were investigating the case. 

You may be interested to know that there’s also a YouTube video posted in 2017 which shows heat-resistant ice cream by Japan’s Kanazawa Ice that won't melt, even when blasted by a blowdryer:

 

In this case, the "polyphenol found in strawberry" is said to have been in use by ice cream makers in Japan for years.