Tag Archives: Carme Gasull

Licking your way to new ice cream: a physicist’s ice cream changes colour when licked

Bob Yirkas in a July 20, 2014 article for phys.org describes a new twist on ice cream,

Spanish physicist, engineer, professor and ice cream lover Manuel Linares has together with a couple of colleagues created an ice cream that changes colors when it’s licked—in a cone. Not content with the life of a physics professor, Linares signed up for training with Asociación Empresarial Nacional de Elaboradores Artesanos y Comerciantes de Helados y Horchatas—a craftsmen and businessmen association in Spain that offers mentored coursework.

Linares pursued what he has described as a “Masters Diploma in Creating Artisan Ice Cream.” Intrigued by the ice that changes color under fluorescent lights, created by Charlie Francis, Linares set his sights on figuring out a way to create a type of ice cream that would change color in response to temperature changes and acids found in the human mouth. He enlisted the assistance of a couple of unnamed buddies and they all got to work in a lab that Linares put together with his own funds. Linares has told the press that it took the three of them just one week to come up with the color changing ice cream. The final product, which reportedly has a similar taste to tutti-frutti, has been named Xamaleón.

Mariella Moon’s July 30, 2014 article for Engadget reveals more about Linares’ iice cream confection and his future plans,

He [Linares] calls it the Xamaleón, a play on the Spanish word for chameleon, and it originally starts as a periwinkle blue frozen treat until it’s spritzed with Linares’ “love elixir,” a super secret mixture he concocted himself. This mixture reacts to changes in temperature and saliva, causing the tutti-frutti-flavored ice cream to turn into purple, then into pink as you lick.

As unusual as it sounds, this is just the beginning of Linares’ foray into the color-changing ice cream business: he also plans to whip up ice cream that turns from white to pink, and another one that glows under ultraviolet light. You can only get a scoop of this chameleon ice cream from one [of] the creator’s shops in Spain right now, …

The earliest version of this story that I can find is a July 16, 2014 article by Carme Gasull for Cocinatis. You will need Spanish language skills to read it but luckily, this photograph included in the article speaks for itself,

Xamaleón [downloaded from http://www.cocinatis.com/comer/xamaleon-helado-que-cambia-color_2014071600015.html]

Xamaleón [downloaded from http://www.cocinatis.com/comer/xamaleon-helado-que-cambia-color_2014071600015.html]

This is Xamaleón’s pre-love elixir spritz periwinkle blue. You can find more pictures (and a video too) of the ice cream in various stages of its colourful transformation by following this posting’s links to other articles or, if you choose, to search, there’s a lot of material as this has been a very popular topic. BTW, July was National Ice Cream Month as per this July 1, 2014 posting by Anthony Selden for daily.com.