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Sweet Ritual's unicorn poop vegan ice cream
Sweet Ritual's unicorn poop vegan ice cream
Sweet Ritual/Official

Dig Into These 9 Unexpected Ice Cream Flavors in Austin

Black garlic sorbets and candied bacon

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Sweet Ritual's unicorn poop vegan ice cream
| Sweet Ritual/Official

Ice cream luckily works all year round for Austin. Living up to the city’s mantra of "keeping it weird" means that it extends over into the frozen dessert territory.

Going well beyond the typical (and, hey, sometimes boring) chocolate and vanilla, Austin ice cream shops are creating dazzling concoctions using wildly inventive ingredients from salty snacks to candied bacon to herbs and more. In honor of Sweets Week, we’ve rounded up the most unique ice cream flavors that we could find on menus at this moment.

That means traditional local favorites, modern sweets parlors, non-dairy dreamlands, to brand new ones. Take the recently-opened Prohibition Creamery – an adult-friendly bar and ice cream shop where the flavors are as boozy as the cocktails. Over at Lick Ice Cream, the rotating list of seasonal flavors make good use of local ingredients, daring to find new ways to use nostalgic Texas fruits, herbs, and even vegetables. Plus, there are many others.

All of the ice cream dishes below are listed in an unranked order. See a missing strange flavor? Let Eater know through the tipline, comments, or over on the forum.

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Chocolate Popcorn at Uchiko

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Uchiko’s rotating ice creams and sorbets tend include playful interpretations on savory delights. Case in point: a black garlic sorbet that dashed onto a past menu just long enough to delight naysayers. Currently, there is the sweet and salty chocolate popcorn ice cream, served with black pepper macarons and earl grey salt.

Uchiko/Official

Toasted Bread at General Tso’Boy

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Owners Jessica and Gary Wu got inspired with the scraps of Easy Tiger bread leftover from sandwiches, and viola, the toasted bread soft serve was born. To top the delightfully malty and sweet treat, crumbled toast pieces are caramelized with sweet, brown butter for a luscious garnish. Soft serve flavors here always rotate, so look out for other stunners like milk black tea and the stinky but sweet durian.

General Tso'Boy/Official

Black Sesame at Fixe

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Fixe has a knack for reinventing the Southern classics and dessert is no different. Black sesame ice cream is nutty and sweet in all of the right ways, shining bright as the star of the show in a deconstructed key lime pie, served with avocado mousse, caramel sorghum, and toasted meringue.

Fixe/Official

Spiced Sweet Potato Pie at Lick Ice Creams

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Essentially the most perfect elements of fall are all blended together in one bite, this flavor starts with roasted local sweet potatoes mixed with housemade marshmallows and crunchy cookie crumbles mixed with fresh ginger.

Annie Ray

Unicorn Poop at Sweet Ritual

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Arguably, the moniker is the strangest element of this vegan scoop shop’s customer favorite, which comes with a pink vanilla base (colored with beet juice) and sprinkled with chewy bits of Skittles and rainbow sprinkles, because that’s what it would look like if unicorns left this behind.

Sweet Ritual/Official

The Funky Chunky Drunken Monkey Milkshake at Prohibition Creamery

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To be fair, this one is not an ice cream flavor, Per se. But with a name like that, how could we leave this off of the list? This milkshake number begins as most do at the grownup ice cream shop, with a boozy ice cream. Whiskey ice cream is blended with banana liqueur, chocolate, and peanut butter. Make it “funky” by adding a bourbon whipped cream.

Nicolai McCrary

Devil’s on Horseback Ice Cream at Delicious

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Chef Tyler Johnson turned the sweet and savory appetizer of the same name into a scoop of sweet and salty wonder with goat’s milk ice cream and flecks of dates and candied bacon.

Delicious/Official

Chocolate Rosemary at Tèo Espresso and Gelato

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An herbaceous take on classic chocolate, Teo’s dark chocolate gelato seems to open its eyes and wake up when met with piney, minty rosemary. Pro tip: add olive oil for extra nuttiness and richness.

Café de Olla at Café No Sé

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Pastry chef Amanda Rockman’s take on ice cream is classic and familiar, but always come with a twist. This flavor is strangely nostalgic with a combination you can’t quite describe with notes of coffee, cinnamon, and orange, but you definitely want another spoonful.

Cafe No Se/Official

Chocolate Popcorn at Uchiko

Uchiko’s rotating ice creams and sorbets tend include playful interpretations on savory delights. Case in point: a black garlic sorbet that dashed onto a past menu just long enough to delight naysayers. Currently, there is the sweet and salty chocolate popcorn ice cream, served with black pepper macarons and earl grey salt.

Uchiko/Official

Toasted Bread at General Tso’Boy

Owners Jessica and Gary Wu got inspired with the scraps of Easy Tiger bread leftover from sandwiches, and viola, the toasted bread soft serve was born. To top the delightfully malty and sweet treat, crumbled toast pieces are caramelized with sweet, brown butter for a luscious garnish. Soft serve flavors here always rotate, so look out for other stunners like milk black tea and the stinky but sweet durian.

General Tso'Boy/Official

Black Sesame at Fixe

Fixe has a knack for reinventing the Southern classics and dessert is no different. Black sesame ice cream is nutty and sweet in all of the right ways, shining bright as the star of the show in a deconstructed key lime pie, served with avocado mousse, caramel sorghum, and toasted meringue.

Fixe/Official

Spiced Sweet Potato Pie at Lick Ice Creams

Essentially the most perfect elements of fall are all blended together in one bite, this flavor starts with roasted local sweet potatoes mixed with housemade marshmallows and crunchy cookie crumbles mixed with fresh ginger.

Annie Ray

Unicorn Poop at Sweet Ritual

Arguably, the moniker is the strangest element of this vegan scoop shop’s customer favorite, which comes with a pink vanilla base (colored with beet juice) and sprinkled with chewy bits of Skittles and rainbow sprinkles, because that’s what it would look like if unicorns left this behind.

Sweet Ritual/Official

The Funky Chunky Drunken Monkey Milkshake at Prohibition Creamery

To be fair, this one is not an ice cream flavor, Per se. But with a name like that, how could we leave this off of the list? This milkshake number begins as most do at the grownup ice cream shop, with a boozy ice cream. Whiskey ice cream is blended with banana liqueur, chocolate, and peanut butter. Make it “funky” by adding a bourbon whipped cream.

Nicolai McCrary

Devil’s on Horseback Ice Cream at Delicious

Chef Tyler Johnson turned the sweet and savory appetizer of the same name into a scoop of sweet and salty wonder with goat’s milk ice cream and flecks of dates and candied bacon.

Delicious/Official

Chocolate Rosemary at Tèo Espresso and Gelato

An herbaceous take on classic chocolate, Teo’s dark chocolate gelato seems to open its eyes and wake up when met with piney, minty rosemary. Pro tip: add olive oil for extra nuttiness and richness.

Café de Olla at Café No Sé

Pastry chef Amanda Rockman’s take on ice cream is classic and familiar, but always come with a twist. This flavor is strangely nostalgic with a combination you can’t quite describe with notes of coffee, cinnamon, and orange, but you definitely want another spoonful.

Cafe No Se/Official

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