An Australian gelato company has suspended a member of its social media team and publicly apologised for posting what it says was a careless and insensitive caption about "blackface" over the weekend.

N2 Extreme Gelato posted a photo of their new "honey charcoal vanilla" flavour on their Facebook page on Saturday, with the caption: "Is it still considered blackface if it's just on your hand??? Anyway it's just spilt carbon so calm yo tits with our HONEY CHARCOAL VANILLA gelato! (Carbon dusting not included)"

The company, which has stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Newtown, Fitzroy and Paris, is known for its playful Facebook promos of new flavours. A post from May 9 says: "Deep down inside all we really want is this BIG ... BLACK .........Lava salted caramel gelato tonight mirite???"

This time the gelato maker has attracted a lot of criticism on Facebook.