A glow-in-dark ice-cream is already a weird idea but the fact that it was made out of a jellyfish made it even more of a flashing news. It is made of jellyfish and that is what imparts the glowing luminescent effect to the cream and you can see the glow on your tongue with each lick.
British entrepreneur Charlie Francis is the founder of the ice-cream company, Lick Me I’m Delicious, and this is the guy when went on to invent the fluorescent ice cream with jellyfish as his partner. Once the protein extracted from jellyfish reacts with the warm temperature of a tongue, the pH level of the tongue increases to a higher level, causing the ice cream to glow
Francis came up with the idea after reading a study on jellyfish. He worked with a scientist from China to chemically recreate the jellyfish protein in synthetic form as reported by various news sources.
Jellyfish protein is expensive and that makes one scoop of this ice-cream to be sold for 140 pounds ($225). However, the price is not stopping businesses, chefs and customers from trying the luminous dessert, Francis told. He said, “It’s probably the most expensive ice cream I’ve ever made. Jellyfish luminescence is four times pricier than gold so each scoop costs me around £140 [or $225 US].”
“I grew up on an ice cream farm in the South of Wales, and I’ve always made ice cream. At Lick Me I’m Delicious, we can make any flavor of ice cream for our clients,” he said. On his company’s blog Francis wrote: “But what on earth is it??? It is a glow in the dark jellyfish ice cream using calcium activated proteins that react when they are agitated.” According to Francis the ice cream gives off a neon green glow when someone’s tongue licks it.
Those concerned about eating part of a sea creature known for its toxic sting will be pleased to know that jellyfish protein is safe to eat at least according to Francis. “Is it safe to eat? Well I tried some and I don’t seem to be glowing anywhere, so we’ll go with a yes for now,” he wrote in a company blog post.
Known for its innovative and sometimes weird ice-cream flavors, Lick Me I’m Delicious offers an odd variety of choices, including roast beef, horseradish and Yorkshire pudding, lamb and mint, cheddar cheese, dark port and stilto (an English cheese), and raspberry mojito. The company also has a portable liquid nitrogen machine. Liquid nitrogen is often used to instantaneously freeze ice cream because it vaporizes at such a low temperature and emits theatrical smoke effects. What’s more, the company once created ice cream with a fire extinguisher, and uses a unique ice-cream making device known as the “Ice Cream Pottery Gramophone Machine.”
Francis also goes ahead to say that he plans to make more unusual ice-cream flavors in the future, including invisible ice cream and the hottest ice cream in the world. As aquarists, we found this one pretty amusing, maybe more than the invisible one that will be coming up sometimes in the future.