Unmeltable Ice Cream? The Company Behind Twix and M&M’s Just Filed a Patent for It 

The sun rises at the start of the day and sets at the end. Trees get new leaves in the spring and shed them in the fall. And ice cream melts. There are some universal truths about our world, and these are just a few. It seems, though, that Mars has decided that it’s time to defy physics once and for all, and thereby change the fabric of our reality. The mega-corporation, which owns Twix, M&M’s, and dozens of other brands, has just filed a patent for a vegan ice cream that doesn’t melt, according to VegNews.

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Okay, it doesn’t resist melting entirely – but apparently, if it works, you’ll get a good couple of hours out of it before it turns into a puddle. How would it work, though? What are they up to over at Mars? We’ll explain all, right here.

Say Goodbye to Ice Cream Drips, Apparently

VegNews reports that Mars has all its legal paperwork in place for a new ice cream patent using Urad beans, or black gram lentils. Apparently, using these pulses to make ice cream gives the dessert a specific, slightly looser structure than the kind you’d get if you made the dessert using its typical ingredients. This structure both slows down melting, allowing the ice cream to keep its shape for up to two hours at room temperature, and it also makes the ice cream, well, creamier. 

Mars is far from the first company to try to achieve the impossible here. Back in 2018, a melt-resistant ice cream was made by using polyphenols, which gave the dessert more stability. These polyphenols served to keep the fats that melt when ice cream heats up to room temperature within the structure of the dessert itself – and as such, you don’t get any drips down your hands as you work through it. Pretty cool, huh?

Yeah, We Guess – But Is It Actually Nice to Eat?

Well, here’s the problem. When melt-resistant ice cream, or melt-resistant anything, comes up to room temperature, it might retain its shape – but it also turns into a bit of a gelatinous mess. Want proof? Check out what happened when Hershey’s made an unmeltable chocolate, which someone got their hands on over on TikTok. When the chocolate warmed up, it turned into a kind of floppy jelly, which, frankly, looks completely unappetizing. 

We guess the fact that this new ice cream will also be vegan is to be celebrated, and it’ll hopefully add to the range of great dairy-free ice creams out there. But honestly, if it looks anything like that chocolate, we’re kinda not that interested. Maybe we just don’t need ice cream not to melt. Maybe that part of the world is just all just totally fine as it is.