Charcoal ice-cream and frozen yogurt is now a thing

In case you missed the memo, one 2017's biggest predicted health trends has been charcoal. Activated and in your food and your beauty products, not just in your fireplace and as a cleaning product (yeah, it can do that).

But charcoal has finally made its way into ice-cream and the result is just as gothic and macabre as you might imagine, and possibly a little bit more eye catching and beautiful than anticipated.

We've been watching the black ice cream trend unfold thanks to places like Morgenstern's Finest Ice Cream (NY) serving up a black coconut ash ice cream.

While Angelato in Pargue has something similar.

But it's a place called Little Damage that's currently catching our eye, a family-run ice cream parlour that has popped up on social media in recent days thanks to a #gothicecream tag and their use of charcoal.

It's the almond charcoal soft serve with charcoal waffle cone that is causing all the fuss, and some are claiming it's the antidote to the recent Starbucks unicorn frappuccino monstrosity that was supposed to be all sugar and light. Because, you know, where there's light there must be dark, right?

And we have no doubt we'll see plenty more charcoal ice creams coming our way.

But not too far behind the trend (and not to be left out) Australia has received its own version of the frozen charcoal treat with Twisted releasing Australia's first charcoal frozen yoghurt.

Of course there are plenty of instances of black ice-cream (we're big fans of a good black sesame version) and in the past we've seen ice-cream and gelato so dense with chocolate that it's almost appeared black, but it's the ash and now the charcoal angle that has us intrigued. Particularly the shades of grey and black that it creates, because the stuff that Little Damage are churning out (pun intended) really is as black as the blackest night that even a witch can't see through.  

Putting aside any touted health benefits (seriously, it's been added to ice-cream, so how good for you can it be), and the potentially gritty texture and questionable flavour, would the colour alone put you off trying this? Or is the dark appeal of a good Instagram snap just too much to steer your dark side away from?

Personally at 9Kitchen, we find it moody and beautiful, and a little bit mesmerising, kind of like the vampire of the ice-cream world.