This Halloween, Salt & Straw is all about having customers embrace their inner Dracula. The Oregon-based artisanal ice cream shop, which has outposts up and down the west coast, is known for its unusual pairings like bone marrow and smoked cherries, but this new line of ice creams takes that concept to a new level.
The popular chain, which has been visited by Charlize Theron, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, and Janice Dickinson, will release five All Hallow’s Eve-themed flavors on Friday, October 5, and one of them is made with real blood. Grossed out yet?
Though the flavor in question, which is called Dracula’s Blood Pudding, isn’t made with human blood, the sweet treat does get its red hue from fresh pigs’ blood. Inspired by a classic Southern Italian dessert, known as “sanguinaccio dolce,” which translates to “sweet blood sausage,” the unusual ice cream combines the blood with cinnamon, coriander, cubeb pepper and brandy.
According to Kat Whitehead, Salt & Straw’s head of research and development, the store sources its pig’s blood from Portland, Oregon. “When you taste our Dracula’s Blood Pudding flavor, the idea is not for the blood to be in your face — when I eat the flavor, I get spiced chocolate to start, but as the ice cream melts, you can start picking up on the presence of the pig’s blood,” she explained to Today Food. “There’s a distinct salinity and minerality.”
And even though there’s definitely an OMG factor with the Dracula’s Blood Pudding ice cream, Whitehead maintains Salt & Straw didn’t create it with the sole purpose of grossing people out. “Our goal was to make the pig’s blood a present component, but in a way where the other ingredients round it out,” she added.
What’s more? Some of Salt & Straw’s other Halloween flavors are just as cringeworthy. While Mummy’s Pumpkin Spiced Potion – an ice cream with pumpkin Psychocandy tea steeped in coconut ice cream with candied pumpkin bits – is comparatively standard, the shop’s Creepy Crawly Critters flavor isn’t for the faint of heart. The matcha ice cream is topped with orange and dark chocolate covered crickets and coconut toffee brittle mealworms. Yum!
Tell Us: Will you be trying any of Salt & Straw’s Halloween flavors?
