Toppa Top 10: Ten Classically Caribbean Ice Cream Flavors

Words by Jesse Serwer
Photos by Martei Korley
Model: Gabija Mitchell

Ben & Jerry’s recently announced an ice-cream flavor said to be inspired by Bob Marley. Dubbed “Satisfy My Bowl,” the newest product from the minds behind Cherry Garcia and Chunky Monkey consists of banana ice cream with caramel and cookie swirls and chocolate peace signs. Sure, Bob loved peace, and it’s true that bananas are grown in Jamaica, but… really? The way we see it, this seemingly random flavor selection represents a huge missed opportunity for Ben & Jerry to let the world in on the biggest secret in the ice-cream world: the amazingness of Jamaican ice cream.

Visit any ice-cream shop in the Caribbean, and you’re likely to encounter some flavors that you won’t get at Ben & Jerry’s, Baskin Robbins or any other American chain. Along with more commonly known tropical fruits like coconut and mango, less widely available fruits such as soursop, guava and nesberry make for popular ice cream flavors in the Caribbean.

Jamaica has developed a particularly rich ice-cream culture, and it doesn’t stop at tropical fruits. While most people associate ice-cream consumption with childhood, Jamaica has perfected what one might call “adult ice cream,” crafting savory-sweet flavors from beer, rum and even apple vodka. Easily, the most popular of these concoctions is Irish Stout ice cream, typically made with Guinness or its somewhat sweeter Jamaican counterpart, Dragon Stout. and popularized at Kingston institution Devon House I-Scream. Falling completely to the left is the decidedly non-alcoholic, yet surprisingly intoxicating “Grape Nut.” In Jamaica, it’s almost an anomaly to consume the similarly named cereal as the Post Foods company intended it–it’s far better known as the active ingredient in a delicious ice cream.

Explaining why Jamaican-made ice cream tastes better than other ice-cream can be tricky. (It’s also not a universal opinion). The fruit flavors tend to have a tangier edge than usual, a phenomenon that’s been described as “almost like milk on the edge of spoiling” and “something more sophisticated” than regular ice cream. We’ve heard a few explanations for the richness, including the use of coconut milk and New Zealand Anchor Butter, but no purveyor of Jamaican ice cream that we spoke to would cop to using either. One thing they all seem to agree on is that for ice cream to be up to Jamaican standards, it must be made with fresh, real ingredients (no artificial flavors) and a “premium” milk mix with a butter-fat ratio of about 14 to 16 percent.

So, yeah, Ben and Jerry–you guys blew it with this one. But a hippies’ loss is a yardie’s gain—and all the more reason to grab a cone when you’re in Jamaica, or in the vicinity of the dozen or so shops specializing in tropical ice-cream around the US.

Here’s a look at 10 of the Caribbean’s most beloved ice-cream flavors, and where to find them.

10. Mango

Now, the mango is one of those tropical fruits that gets around. You can probably find a pint of mango ice cream in the freezer aisle of your local supermarket right this minute, no matter where you live. (Ben & Jerry’s makes a mango sorbet.) But it won’t taste like the scoop you’ll get in Jamaica, or “tropical” ice cream shops in the U.S. like Brooklyn’s Taste the Tropics or North Carolina’s Caribbean Royale. And it’s not just because of the high butter fat. As Marlon Davis, the Jamaican-born founder of Nesberry’s, a chain of three tropical ice-cream shops in Long Island and Queens, explains: “The type of mango we use gives it a particular taste—it takes like mangoes from the Caribbean, specifically.”

Pictured: Taste the Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

9. Blue Mountain Coffee

Coffee-flavored ice cream is just one step below chocolate, vanilla and strawberry on the ubiquity scale. But Jamaica has the best coffee in the world, so it only stands to reason that it would have the most unusually good coffee ice cream in the world, right? The world-class bean it’s named for is harvested primarily for export, and, similarly, Blue Mountain Coffee ice cream is probably easier to find outside of Jamaica than within it. There’s no Blue Mountain Coffee flavor at the island’s top creamery, Devon House I-Scream, but it is on the desert menu at Ortanique, the Miami Caribbean restaurant run by the family of late Devon House chef (and “Julia Child of the Caribbean”) Norma Shirley. It’s also carried by a few of North America’s Jamaican ice-cream specialists, like Marlon Davis’ Nesberry’s shops, where Blue Mountain Coffee’s richness is evidenced in a dark, almost chocolate-like hue.

Pictured: Nesberry’s (164-17E Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, NY, and 2 other locations; 516-881-7782)

8. Guava

Guava is one of those fruits that makes magic when paired cream. This 1-2 punch of tropical flavor is a staple of Cuban cuisine, where guava jelly and cream cheese are stuffed together inside flaky pastelitos and, sometimes, empanadas. Azucar, a newly opened but popular shop in Miami’s Little Havana specializing Cuban-inspired ice cream flavors, features a savory guava flavor. But it’s in Jamaica, where the guava scoop was arguably perfected. (A Google search for “guava ice cream” also turns up a pastelito-inspired guava and cream cheese flavor at Morelli’s Ice Cream in Atlanta.) The perfectly pink batch above comes from Taste the Tropics, the Brooklyn institution that’s been serving up Jamaican ice-cream flavors on Nostrand Avenue since 1975.

Pictured: Taste the Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

7. Jamaican Rum Cake

Those aren’t chocolate chips, they’re chunks of gooey Jamaican rum cake, also known as fruit cake, black cake or Christmas cake. And it’s not just a Jamaican ting. If you’ve got West Indian family, you probably have at least one relative who bakes a black cake come holiday time that’s so intoxicating you’re liable to get black-out drunk after too many slices. If it’s called “Jamaican rum cake,” though, it’s almost certainly made with Wray and Nephew white rum. “We use a rum cake formula that has various different rums in it,” Nesberry’s founder Marlon Davis says of his variation, pictured above. Don’t expect to catch a buzz off your ice cream, though: “The amount of rum is controlled based on the Health Department,” Davis says.

Pictured: Nesberrys (Green Acres Mall, Valley Stream, NY, and 2 other locations; 516-881-7782)

6. Coconut

You won’t find an ice-cream shop in the Caribbean that doesn’t have coconut–unless they’ve run out. The most ubiquitous fruit in the tropics is also one of the most ubiquitous tropical ice creams, from Jamaica to the Philippines. Though some would say coconut is a flavor best enjoyed on its own, some Jamaican/tropical ice cream shops in the Diaspora have come up with some tasty hybrids. JR Sweets, a Jamaican-run shop in Toronto that specializes in boozy ice cream, has a coconut rum flavor, while Nesberry’s features a blend of coconut with pineapple.

Pictured: Nesberry’s (164-17E Jamaica Ave., Jamaica, NY; 516-881-7782)

5. Irish Moss

Irish Moss is a classic “Island juice” found at most any Jamaican takeaway. Marketed as a libido booster and a “man’s drink,” it’s made with the titular algae (also known as carageen, or sea moss), condensed milk (or a milk substitute), along with honey, acacia gum, sugar, linseed and nutmeg. And also sometimes with something called isinglass, pure gelatin prepared from the air bladders of fish. Nonetheless, it’s about the most delicious refreshing thing you can drink after a spicy Jamaican meal, so it’s only natural that it would be turned into a suitably tasty ice cream by purveyors of yardie deserts. Find it at Taste the Tropics, and The Ice Cream Factory in Mount Vernon, NY.

Pictured: Taste The Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

4. Rum Raisin

Rum raisin is possibly the most mainstreamed island ice-cream innovation. But Nesberry’s Marlon Davis insists that the Jamaican style of rum raisin served at his shop is a different animal than the stuff you’ll get at Baskin Robbins. “There are secrets on how to make it taste different,” Davis says. “If you try rum raisin at another ice cream shop in the US, it will never taste like ours.” Davis won’t give his secrets away, but we’re pretty sure Wray and Nephew are at least partly involved.

Pictured: Taste The Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

3. Soursop

Soursop is one of the “most Caribbean” fruits there is. The spiky green fruit with the surprisingly creamy white pulp is popular in other places (Mexico, The Philippines, Brazil), too, but there’s so many different names for it (guanabana, graviola) in use around the world, it’s hard to keep track. Soursop–now, that’s an island ting.

The pulp’s creamy, almost candy-like flavor makes it a perfect base for ice cream, and soursop ice cream is readily available in ice-cream shops and freezer aisles in Jamaica and parts of Latin America. One of the most truly tropical fruits, soursop literally can not grow outside the tropics, but it is packaged frozen for international use–you can find guanabana pulp in most supermarkets with Latin American sections.

Pictured: Taste The Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

2. Grape Nut

As a cereal, Grape-Nuts have always been appreciated more for their health benefits (fiber!) than their taste. For many, the only way to actually enjoy the crunchy breakfast nuggets is by topping them with a heaping helping of brown sugar and fruits. However, as anyone who’s ever let their bowl sit out for a while before digging in  — or microwaved them into an Oatmeal-like mush — knows, the longer Grape-Nuts soak in milk, the better they taste. This helps to explain the sublime quality of Jamaican-style Grape Nut ice cream (or “Great Nut,” as it’s known in some iterations), which ostensibly consists of regular vanilla ice cream with the titular cereal mixed in. The result transcends any flavor you could imagine that combination to produce, bringing ice cream to its creamy extreme. We’ve heard Grape Nut ice cream is also popular in parts of New England and the Canadian coast but we just can’t imagine their version is as good as the Jamaican one. Just like mesh marinas, Clarks shoes and Western movies, Grape Nuts are another import from “farin” that’s been remixed and reclaimed by yardies into something distinctly Jamaican.

“It’s the actual grape nuts that gives off that great taste,” says Rudy Guerrino, owner of The Ice Cream Factory, a Mount Vernon, NY shop that specializes in island flavors. “When you put it in ice cream, it softens up and [the flavor] disperses.” Though some creameries use the generic Grape Nuts imitations found in most supermarkets to save money and avoid licensing fees, Guerrino says The Ice Cream Factory only uses Post Grape Nuts. “I actually have to buy them in boxes at the supermarket. Post won’t sell ’em to me in [bulk].”

Pictured: Taste The Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

1. Guinness AKA Irish Stout

We’ve never seen this corroborated with actual numbers, but we’ve heard that Jamaica consumes more Guinness per capita than any other place. If that’s true, that would somehow mean that Jamaica consumes more Guinness than Ireland. And that can’t be true. But our own uncorroborated rum-bar observations suggest Guinness is the most popular Jamaican beer, with Red Stripe and Heineken coming at a distant second and third. (And Dragon Stout, Jamaica’s own homegrown answer to Guinness, somewhere behind them).

The thing about Guinness in Jamaica is that it isn’t just for drinking and getting loose. Stout is also prescribed by many Jamaicans as a cure-all, used for colds, coughs and hangovers, kind of the way some Latin Americans swear by Vicks Vapor Rub (“Vivaporu!”). Jamaica also celebrates Arthur Guinness Day as if the beer baron was some sort of yardie founding father. And it’s become the basis for several different desserts, including a popular punch said to make men more virile.

We’re not sure where making ice cream with Irish Stout originated but it seems to have been popularized at Devon House I-Scream, the popular concession at one of Kingston’s most popular historical sites. (Devon House was the home of George Stiebel, the island’s first Black millionaire). Devon House I-Scream markets the flavor as “Devon Stout,” keeping us guessing at which stout they actually use.

Pictured: Taste The Tropics (1839 Nostrand Ave, Brooklyn; 718-856-0821)

+1: Passion Fruit

Passion fruit is another fruit that shows up at Jamaican ice-cream shops and American ones, too, but typically as a sorbet. Here’s Nesberry’s version below (In defense of Ben & Jerry’s, this is one tropical flavor that the Vermont hippies have been known to use.)

Honorable Mentions

Other ice-cream flavors you’re likely to encounter at a Jamaican or tropical ice-cream shop include sorrel, ginger, sweetsop, tamarind and naseberry. All could easily have been on this list, especially naseberry, a Jamaican favorite that was used to invent the original chewing gum. They just weren’t available for us to sample (and photograph) during any of our recent jaunts to Jamaican ice-cream shops. Marlon Davis of Nesberry’s, which gets its name from the naseberry fruit, says he’s only able to make his shop’s namesake flavor during certain times of year, due to lack of availability. “Naseberry is a very expensive fruit to find, especially in the US,” he says.