Culture Global Cuisines

Golden Soft Serve Ice Cream: Luxe Or Unnecessary?

Joanna Fantozzi|

We're no stranger to decadent ice creams. After all, the most expensive ice cream sundae in the world (served at New York's Serendipity) is dripping with gold and costs almost $1,000.But there's actually an ice cream shop in Kanazawa, Japan, (known as the gold leaf capital of Japan) called Hakuichi that sells a soft serve ice cream cone covered from top to bottom in gold leaf, and it only costs 1,000 yen ($8 USD).

We're guessing that the cheap price tag might have something to do with oversaturation, as Kanazawa's shops sell pretty much anything and everything made or topped with the shiny paper-thin material, including gold leaf sake and plum wine with gold flecks in it.

The ultra-shiny soft serve cone — for those in the know — may look impressive and decadent, but the gold leaf doesn't actually taste like much, according to tasters posting their thoughts to Twitter. It's more of an aesthetic appeal. 

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