It may be Insta-worthy, but charcoal ice cream is not what it's cracked up to be
Claudia McNeilly: The ingredient's viral trendiness illustrates how quick we are to flock to the latest food experience without bothering to know very much about what is being served
Charcoal ice cream. No thanks.Getty Images/iStockphoto
Special to National Post
By Claudia McNeilly
Jet-black ingredients are not what most people think of when they imagine mouthwatering food and drink.
Black is the colour of burnt toast, dangerous moulds, dirty water and oysters that have been contaminated with oil spills. It is the off-putting promise of gimmicky black-out restaurants where diners are blindfolded and made to "enjoy" a meal in total darkness. It is also a symbol of the unpleasant black licorice jellybean, often left behind after all the others have been eaten. Perigord truffles, black pepper and black sesame seeds are among the only exceptions, yet it's rare to find these ingredients used as more than a garnish, allowing only small flecks of blackness to be consumed at a time.
Foods that are delicious and entirely charcoal-hued are almost unheard of, allowing their very presence to feel like a thrill. Perhaps this is why lines to try charcoal ice cream, an alluring onyx concoction, are often so long they wrap around the block at Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream in New York, Little Damage in Los Angeles and iHalo Krunch – pronounced 'ee-hallow' – in Toronto. At these specialty creameries, the treat is served in flavours like coconut ash, dark cinnamon and black on black coconut.
The morose ice cream can be seen as the antidote that nobody asked for, intended as a balancing measure to counteract the equally popular movement towards rainbow bagels and highlighter pink unicorn lattes. Some have even called it "Goth Food
." After noticing that the ice cream's clientele tends to consist of upbeat food bloggers, preppy millennials and people who appear to be some mix of the two, the label may seem inaccurate. Yet a popular Instagram caption that can be found accompanying pictures of the black dessert reads: "Found ice cream as dark as my soul."
But while enterprising entrepreneurs may be tempted to throw some barbecue coals into a tub of ice cream and open what promises to be a thriving small business, charcoal ice cream is not made from what you find inside your average grill. Its main ingredient is activated charcoal, a form of carbon often used to treat victims of oral drug overdose and poisoning.
Before getting ushered into the community of viral goth food stuffs, its highly adsorbent properties were hailed by the alternative medicine community. Proponents claimed it removed the toxins from our "faulty bodies." In 2014, Gwyneth Paltrow preached about the detoxifying benefits of activated charcoal lemonade from Los Angeles juicery JUICE Served Here on lifestyle platform Goop. Soon, the ingredient was cropping up in detox lemonades and green juices everywhere.
Many of these alleged detoxifying properties have since been debunked. As it turns out, the body does not actually absorb activated charcoal, meaning that the compound cannot detoxify pre-existing toxins; it can only bind to whatever is currently in your stomach. Consumption has also been shown to decrease food's overall nutrients because activated charcoal does not discriminate against the adsorption of good or bad nutrients.
A study from Pamukkale University in Turkey found that adding activated charcoal to apple juice reduced the amounts of Vitamin C, niacin, Vitamin B and biotin naturally found in the juice. The ingredient has also been shown to interfere with medicines like birth control by preventing it from being absorbed. A drugs.com report found that a total of 242 drugs including Benadryl and ibuprofen (Advil) are known to have moderate clinical interactions with activated charcoal and should be avoided during charcoal consumption.
The shadowy ingredient also stains everything it touches to a shade of black or peculiar green. As foodies have been busy Instagramming their rapidly melting ice cream under the heat of a July sun at iHalo Krunch in Toronto, there have been so many black spills on the surrounding pavement that employees have been deployed to wash the oil-like puddles away. Staff at iHalo Krunch also take measures to prevent skin staining by wearing black plastic surgical gloves to administer the inky soft serve into its accompanying black charcoal cones.
The coconut flavour at iHalo Krunch straddles the line between being inoffensive and unremarkable. Unless you hate coconut, you will probably like it just fine, although it's hard to imagine even the most vehement of coconut lovers getting too excited. In light of all of this, it's hard to imagine charcoal ice cream would be the source of such pandemonium. Yet at iHalo Krunch, hundreds of people can be found in a line that wraps around the Queen West block on any given Saturday.
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After queuing for what feels like hours, it becomes apparent that iHalo Krunch does not serve ice cream; they serve edible haunted houses. Those eager to try it are hungry for the blood-curdling sensation of stuffing their faces with a substance that looks like melted down tires.
While those not on medication are unlikely to be harmed from the occasional indulgence, the ingredient's viral trendiness illustrates how quick we are to flock to the latest food experience without bothering to know very much about what is being served. Activated charcoal will eventually be replaced with the next viral ingredient that promises a newer, more attractive thrill. But we should learn from our mistakes and do a quick Google search of what we're eating; the activity might at least give us something to do while we wait in line.
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