This New Ice Cream Flavor Will Dominate Instagram All Summer Long

While rainbow-colored foods continue to dominate Instagram, one New York City ice cream maker has gone in a decidedly different direction. Nick Morgenstern, owner of Morgenstern’s Finest Ice Cream, is set to launch a new flavor that should compete for the title of “Most Instagrammed Dessert of the Summer.”

It’s called Coconut Ash, and its defining feature is its color, which happens to be smoke black. Most black foods get their color from squid ink, but Morgenstern’s concoction uses the "charred and processed remains of a coconut shell." 

"I had been monkeying around with coconut ash for a while, and then I had this fancy chocolate bar that used coconut ash," he told Mic. "I knew I had to use it. We wanted to put a coconut ice cream on the menu and it all came together." 

Coconut ash is essentially a form of activated charcoal, something that can already be found in things like pizza and cocktails. And, while Morgenstern acknowledges that the ingredient “theoretically” has detoxifying properties, the real he decided to use it was simple: its flavor.

Morgenstern insists that his creation has a rich coconut taste, which comes from a combination of coconut flakes, coconut milk, coconut cream, and of course the ash.

The ice cream is now available at Morgernstern’s in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. See you in line.

Make homemade ice cream with this Cuisinart ICE-50BC Supreme Ice Cream Maker, and let us know if you'll be trying Morgenstern's black ice cream this summer.