A small Croatian sweet shop located in the picturesque town of Beli Manastir has come up with a rather innovative take on ice cream. Shop owner Ismet Alija has stirred up something special – what appears to be the world’s first pear brandy ice cream.
The ice cream is based on the same pear variety used to produce brandy throughout the region. However, to spice it up a notch, Alija adds about 16 ounces of brandy per four litres of ice cream, which sounds like a lot. As a result he can’t sell the ice cream to minors, but he is attracting a new crowd, eager to try out an age old local specialty in a new, hipper guise.
“Nobody can get drunk from a single serving, not even two,” he told Glas Slavonije. “We don’t serve it to minors, but older folks are thrilled.”
Most customers seem to be opting for a serving of vanilla ice cream on the side, which serves as a mixer.
Emboldened by his success, Alija says he won’t stop at a single variety of boozed up ice cream. He is currently working on an ice cream based on Grasevina, a famous white wine produced in Croatia’s Baranja and Slavonia regions. He hopes to roll it out in time for the local Wine Days Festival later this year and steal the show.
