I scream, you scream, we all scream like newborns.
A DUMBO sweet shop is taking ice cream fans into its bosom this summer, by offering a limited-edition special flavor that tastes exactly like human breast milk.
The boob-based taste has been pumping up sales at Brooklyn’s OddFellows, as a dedicated crowd of New Yorkers have latched onto the idea of sweet treat based on mom’s own recipe.
“I was breastfed by my mother from 1974 to about 1978.5, but I certainly don’t remember that, so it still emotionally, mentally surprised me,” said Charlene Rymsha of Mammoth Lake, California, who stumbled into the shop on her way to catch the Rockaway Beach-bound ferry.
Curiosity was the main motivation for the crowds flocking to the Water Street shop, which was covered in boobie decals, as workers slung the bizarre orange-hued scoops for free as part of a limited collaboration with Frida, a product company for new parents.
The “Breast Milk Ice Cream” has all the typical ingredients of the dessert, including heavy cream, egg yolks and sugar — but isn’t actually made with human breast milk.
Instead, it includes liposomal bovine colostrum, a dietary supplement found in breast milk.
Just 50 free cups — advertised to taste “just like mom used to make” — were being given out per day, and were quickly being licked up with curious New Yorkers who weren’t quite sure what to expect from the product.
While Rymsha was surprised by how much creamier the ice cream was compared to other flavors, her friend Dale Kaplan, 61, said there wasn’t anything extra special about the breast-flavored scoop.
“Isn’t all ice cream breast milk? Doesn’t all ice cream come from the udders of a cow? It just seems like it’s a different word for ice cream. Because ice cream must be breast milk. Am I wrong about that?” Kaplan waxed poetic in the ice cream shop, adding that she was ultimately more of a fan of the collaboration than the flavor itself.
“It’s a testament to maternity and a testament to cows and how they give so much to us … I love cows.”
Dale W. of Brooklyn, on the other hand, walked more than a mile to get her very first taste of breast milk — the bottle-fed baby had no idea what the bizarre treat would taste like, but found that it tasted like “vanilla-ish.”
“I expected it to taste more milky, like a more intense milk flavor. And this is not it,” Dale explained.
Adi Barnea, with her 4-month-old son, Tom, in tow, was pulled to visit the ice cream shop out of pure curiosity — but unlike many of the other testers, the new mom had a barometer to compare the replica to.
“I’ve tried my own … Honestly, I don’t think it’d be too hard to replicate it. I always said it takes like leftover cereal milk. It’s a little sweeter than regular milk. It’s not a strong flavor,” Barnea, 33, of Boreum Hill, explained.
But the first time mom said the sweet treat tasted more like mango than breast milk.
“I don’t think I would guess that this tastes like breast milk,” Barnea said after her first taste.
When asked what tasted better, though, she humbly relented that the OddFellows scoop takes the cake: “This is high-quality stuff. I think this one wins.”
Zach De Santis-Salavarria assumed the ice cream would taste salty, but was surprised to discover that the treat was nothing but sweet.
“It’s kind of like cake batter,” he said, comparing it to box cake mix.
“It’s definitely interesting and it tastes a lot better than I thought it would … It’s a pretty natural thing. And I’m happy to have tried it.”
The test had him hankering for more — though he wouldn’t rank it in his top five favorite ice creams, he admitted he was now willing to try the real deal.
“Why not? As long as it’s ethically sourced, I guess, somehow. I don’t know how that would work, but sure,” De Santis-Salavarria said.