New glow-in-the-dark ice cream developed in UK
A UK ice cream maker has developed a glow-in-the-dark ice cream, using the luminescence protein from jellyfish.
Lick Me I’m Delicious, which was founded by “food inventor” Charlie Harry Francis, said the ice cream contains calcium-activated proteins that react when they are agitated – in other words, the ice cream glows when it is licked.
The Company said it decided to work on a glow-in-the-dark ice cream after finding a Chinese scientist who had managed to synthesise the luminescence protein from jellyfish.
“Naturally we wanted to have a go with some of the stuff, so we ordered some, played and eventually made this,” the Company said.
The novel ice cream comes at a hefty price though: about £140 per scoop.
“It’s probably the most expensive ice cream I’ve ever made; jellyfish luminescence is four times more expensive than gold so each scoop costs me around £140,” said Mr Francis. “It tastes pretty good though and I don’t seem to be glowing anywhere,” he said.
Lick Me I’m Delicious said it has also made a non-jellyfish version of the ice cream using quinine from tonic to make a glow-in-the-dark UV dark gin and tonic sorbet.
Mr Francis, Founder of Lick Me I’m Delicious, is the son of an ice cream maker and a baker and confectionary maker. The Company was founded to engineer “contraptions” that made it possible to make “custom ice cream creations” on site. Its two “contraptions” are a flat packable portable ice cream maker and an “ice cream buggy”, both of which use liquid nitrogen injection to make ice cream onsite.
