With summer around the corner, many of us will soon be reaching for a tub of ice cream to beat the heat.
But one company’s “luxurious” recipe, which has smashed a record for the world’s priciest ice cream, will remain out of reach for the majority of us, with a single serve costing around six times the median American worker’s weekly earnings.
Guinness World Records announced on Thursday that Japanese company Cellato had broken the record for the most expensive ice cream on the planet, with one serving of its Byakuya gelato setting foodies back 880,000 yen ($6,350).
Last year, a study found that the average cost of a scoop of ice cream in the U.S. was $3.87.
The gelato was created from high-end ingredients including rare white truffles sourced from Alba, Italy, as well as sake lees, parmigiano cheese and gold leaf.
The Italian “Phantom White Truffles” alone cost 2 million yen ($14,439) per kilogram.
New record: Most expensive ice cream – JP¥873,400 (£5,469; €6,211; $6,696) made by OMER in Japan.
The ice cream includes edible gold leaf, white truffle and natural cheeses ???? pic.twitter.com/kaJOACEear
— Guinness World Records (@GWR) May 18, 2023
Cellato describes its Byakuya ice cream, which comes with truffle oil, as “rich and mellow” with a “sensual and unique scent” and a “complex flavor.”
The price tag also includes a hand-crafted metal spoon made by Takeuchi craftsmen in Fushimi, Kyoto.
A representative for Cellato told Guinness World Records that the ice cream took a year and a half to develop, with a lot of trial and error required to get the flavor right.
Cellato—which says its ice creams are inspired by nature with a mission to “make even the cells happy”—also makes a $72-a-serve “starry night” flavor gelato, which incorporates black truffles, chocolate and yuzu into the product.