Written Sanjana Nayakanti , a grade 6 student

What’s the connection between the Tsunami that struck Japan in 2011 and ice cream that does not melt?

Let me tell you this interesting story

Apparently, some scientists, who were conducting some research, asked a chef to create a dessert with something called, polyphenol liquid, which was extracted from strawberries. Polyphenols are a type of plant compounds found in many fruits and vegetables.

The reason they asked specifically for extracting it from strawberries was since they wanted to help strawberry farmers whose crops were suffering after the earthquake and tsunami in 2011.

The chef was conducting some experiments and accidentally discovered that adding polyphenol liquid to dairy cream makes it solid.  This is because polyphenol liquid has a property that makes it difficult for water and oil to separate. After the chef discovered this, some researchers started working on it and found that when you add polyphenol liquid to ice cream, it keeps its shape for a longer time and is hard to melt.

That was the beginning of ice cream that does not melt!

Customer Story

When this ice cream was introduced, customers couldn’t believe it and they started putting it to test. They used an hair dryer on normal ice cream and then on an ice cream with polyphenol. They found that the regular ice cream melted in a moment, however the polyphenol one kept its shape even after 5 minutes of heat. And it still felt cold  in the mouth, which was even more amazing to know.

Where can we get it?

Initially, Japan had no plans of exporting it. The only cities where they started this ice-cream initially were Kanazawa, Osaka, and Tokyo in Japan. However, it’s now available in Turkey. . So we can always keep hopes of getting it all over the world.

Some of these ice creams are colour changing too. In terms of texture, it’s a mix of soft and hard.  You take it with the help of an ice cream spoon, and it needs a little strength compared to a regular one.