I’ve been eating kind of a lot of ice cream lately. In my defense, some of it was not my fault. It’s sort of compulsory to eat ice cream if you’re strolling on the Sea Point promenade with a boy. And it was not my fault that my flatmate made that absurdly creamy triple ginger ice cream. It was not my fault either that the TASTE team needed assistance with a tub of the Woolies pistachio ice cream. I guess the scoop of chocolate orange ice cream from The Creamery was kind of my fault – but I don’t regret it. I sometimes find that the texture of their ice cream a little crystalline, but their flavours are genuinely inspired: the segments of orange in this chocolate orange creation were all caramelized and juicy and the chocolate almost moussey.

But aside from classics like these, I’ve also come across some truly unique flavours. Here are five of the most unusual ones to try out right now.

Ice cream cones from Sobertiere.

Japanese salt plum ice cream at Takumi
Papa San’s ice cream offering changes from day to day, but there are always some unusual options. The coconut sorbet is yummy and the green tea ice cream is fabulously creamy with a distinctive green tea hit that’s sort of musty but sort of delicious too. The prize for the most bizarre flavour here though belongs to the umeboshi ice cream, which is made with pickled ume fruits – also known as Japanese salt plums. Imagine a vanilla ice cream that starts out sweet and then morphs into something spectacularly salty: it’s hard to say whether it’s good or not, but I’m pretty sure this is the most unusual thing I’ve tasted all year. It’s not on the menu today, I believe, but there is a passionfruit and sake sorbet on offer that I’m dying to try, plus a rooibos and honey ice cream that excites me possibly even more than green tea did.

Deep-fried ice cream at Izakaya Matsuri
Owned by the former owner of Genki, decked out in charming twinkling fairy lights and hanging lanterns, this relatively new sushi spot is a hidden gem in Green Point. You’ll find it in the alley that passes between the Rockwell and the Vasco de Gama tavern – and find it you should. The sushi is innovative and unusual, there’s great sake and Japanese beer, and the atmosphere is friendly and cosy. For our current purposes though, let us focus on dessert. The ice cream trio comprises a wasabi ice cream that is both zingy and creamy (and copy editor Linda’s favourite), a green tea ice cream served with a fudgy square of bean paste and the piece de resistance (in my book): the deep-fried ice cream with strawberries. It tastes sort of like a waffle that’s been stuffed with ice cream – which is a genius idea according to anyone.

NitroCreamy ice cream at Oranjezicht City Farm Market
Oranjezicht resident David Stone is responsible for this unusual icy gem. David serves up four innovative flavours every Saturday at Oranjezicht City Farm Market. The most striking thing about this ice cream is not so much the flavour but the texture: it’s some of the smoothest ice creams I’ve ever eaten. Watching it being scooped is a glorious sight – it looks almost like clotted cream: stretchy, fudgy and free from any graininess from ice crystals. The reason for this lies in a rather unusual addition to the mixture: liquid nitrogen. Local cream and fresh farm ingredients are blended together with the liquid, which evaporates while churning, leaving a perfectly smooth ice cream composed of extraordinarily tiny ice crystals. That said, they have been known to serve up some unusual flavours in the past. David tells me they’ve done a lemon, lime and cardamom, avocado pear, and beetroot and ginger, but personally I’m dying to try the peanut butter brittle.

NitroCreamy’s honeycomb and roasted almond ice cream. Photo by David Stone.

All-natural cream soda flavoured ice cream from Cold Gold in Stellenbosch
Janine Van Zyl arrived at our offices with an overwhelming range of ice cream flavours a couple of years ago, when the business was just starting out. We were most impressed then that she’d managed to concoct a bubblegum flavour from entirely natural ingredients (she’ll be making it again in November when she can get all the secret ingredients) but since then she’s dreamt up some even more inspired flavours. There’s all-natural cream soda flavour, blue cheese and honey, cognac and prune, and salted caramel popcorn – plus banting and vegan-friendly ice cream on offer – if you’re that way inclined.

Freshly churned ice cream at Cold Gold. Photo courtesy of Janine van Zyl.

Croissant flavoured ice cream at Sorbetiere
It was actually at this Woodstock store’s opening last year that I tasted croissant-flavoured ice cream for the first time. It sounds like it would be awful – soggy and greasy – but instead owner Berenne Cristini managed to infuse the slightly sweet flavour of the pastry into a perfectly creamy scoop. In the past, she’s also created onion ice cream – the onion is caramelized first for those who are concerned – which goes excellently with savoury dishes. Other flavours have included Karoo olive, Christmas pudding and popcorn. Right now there’s a vanilla with black pepper and a chocolate ice cream with pieces of Ma Mere macarons in it. Don’t leave without trying some of the incredible sorbets – it was Berenne’s mango sorbet that helped her take home the award for best new product at this year’s Eat Out Zonnebloem Produce Awards.