You’ll Never Guess How Much the World’s Most Expensive Ice Cream Costs

Here's a hint: the recipe for Byakuya includes some of the rarest truffles in Italy

Byakuya, the world's most expensive ice cream, which is made by Cellato in Japan
What makes Byakuya so expensive? The truffles, and the cheese, and the gold...
Guinness World Records

I’ve never understood the pretentious ice cream trend. The ice cream parlor nearest to where I live peddles (exclusively) flavors that include Guava Cream Cheese, Lemon Olive Oil and Earl Grey Fudge, for $12 a pint. You can get a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Half Baked for $5! And, truth be told, all I ever really want is a $3 twist with rainbow sprinkles from Mister Softee, anyway.

Yet, the trend persists — and in a way that puts Matcha Cookie to shame. Per a new report from CNN, Guinness World Records has just identified the most pretentious — er, I mean the most expensive ice cream in the world.

A massive departure from a twist with rainbow sprinkles, the frozen treat is called Byakuya — or “white night” in Japanese — and it’s going for 873,400 Japanese yen a serving, which is the equivalent of $6,696.

What, pray tell, does the most expensive ice cream on Earth entail? Well to start, the brand behind dessert, Cellato, technically calls it a gelato, though that’s just the tip of its Italian-ness. According to the Guinness World Records website, the recipe includes white truffles from Alba — home to arguably the best and rarest white truffles in all of Italy — which, on their own, have the potential to fetch as much as $15,192 per kilogram.

Byakuya also includes Parmigiano Reggiano and sake lees (a byproduct of Japanese sake production), and is topped with edible gold flakes. In short, it’s a gelato jam-packed with extravagant flavors and ingredients.

“It took us over 1.5 years to develop, with a lot of trials and errors to get the taste right,” a representative from Cellato told Guinness World Records. Tadayoshi Yamada, the head chef at RiVi, a restaurant in Osaka, is credited with the bulk of that development.

The good news: If you’re into truffle-and-cheese flavored ice cream, and have about $7,000 to blow, the gelato is not only available for sale in Japan, but you can have it shipped, too. And if that’s not your cup of tea? Consider riding it out for Cellato’s next release, which is rumored to include Champagne and caviar.

Yum…?

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