News of Falkirk's mayo ice cream goes global

As reported in this week’s Falkirk Herald it is something of a “Marmite” proposition (perhaps that will be a future flavour) - because people seem to either love it or hate it.

But as a piece of public relations for the business it has exceeded Ice owner Kyle Gentleman’s wildest expectations. It has earned commentary in august journals such as the Washington Post, which came up with an exemplary headline for its story: “Hellman’s has frozen over”.

Besides the international coverage, Falkirk’s mayo ice cream has won reports in newspapers and on websites all over Britain, besides foodie commentary and reviews.

Cosmopolitan dismisses it out of hand, commenting: “Of course, people are divided and some think it’s a great idea because mayo makes chocolate cake taste good, but others, who are correct, think it’s gross.”

However while some have expressed complete disgust at both the concept and/or the flavour, others have raved about it - and one or two seem to be developing an addiction.

Yet, says Kyle’s mum Sharon, despite the massive exposure for the wacky new flavour it’s not the most popular with Ice customers, because that honour goes to an ice cream flavoured with a well known brand of standard cider.

“It has been so popular we had a couple coming to Falkirk to stay at a Premier Inn so they could visit us and try it”, she told us.

“The mayonnaise flavour is going down well in Falkirk, just like everywhere else, but it’s not one we’ll keep going forever, and we just do enough tide us over while the demand is there - but we’ll have it for a while yet if anyone is still keen to try it”.

It isn’t the only weird mayonnaise food combination in the world, as in the Netherlands (at least in larger towns and cities) it’s not unusual to see customers requesting mayonnaise - and sugar - with their French fries.

Meanwhile it seems New Yorkers are more difficult to astonish or upset than most, as NYC business Davey’s Ice Cream aims to produce - just for a week - a Feta cheese ice cream variant called You Feta Believe It.

Vanilla perhaps never seemed so plain.