Princeton Gets Buzzy With Bent Spoon's Cicada Ice Cream

PRINCETON, NJ —When nature gives you a cicada invasion, make ice cream. At least that’s what a local ice cream store believes.

The Bent Spoon dropped a “shock flavor” last Saturday for those with an experimental palate. The "cicada chocolate chip" ice cream got Princeton abuzz, with stock selling out within an hour the same day.

“We made around five gallons of ice cream, and they sold under an hour. We saved some to sell at the store the next day. When we opened, we sold out in 15 minutes,” said Gabriella Carbone, owner.

The decision to include these red-eyed bugs in ice cream was a “special” one for Carbone and business partner Matthew Errico.

“This is extra special for us because the ‘Brood X’ last emerged in 2004, the year we opened our store in Princeton. We wanted to do something special this year, so it was so nice to have the opportunity,” said Carbone.

For the duo, the hardest part of the process was finding cicadas to use in the recipe. Although cicadas are all around Princeton and their cacophonous buzz can be heard everywhere, not all are edible.

Only cicadas who have shed their exoskeleton can be eaten. “You can’t walk around and pick them up from anywhere because you don’t know if the ground has been sprayed,” explained Carbone.

The duo connected with a landowner who “had stewardship over his land for over 35 years.”

“He hadn’t sprayed anything on his land and helped Matt and I harvest them.” Carbone and Errico managed to collect just enough to make a small batch of ice cream.

After juggling with a few recipe ideas, the owners decided to go with a protein powder that could be used in ice cream.

“After many days of blanching, cooking and dehydrating we made the protein powder. We then added that to tempered chocolate and made big, beautiful blocks to use as chocolate chips,” Carbone said.

The protein powder added “earthiness” to the chocolate, said Carbone. A vanilla bean ice cream served as a base for the cicada chocolate chips.

“I think it really worked out because people could get the sense that they were experiencing something, and it was really palatable,” said Carbone.

Carbone and Errico were glad about the response they received. Princetonians were aware of cicadas as a sustainable food source, thanks to various research initiatives around town. And this benefitted them.

Read More: Princeton HS Students Make A Meal Of Cicadas For Research

“There was already a lot of press and people know cicadas were edible and high on protein. By using all our techniques to turn it into something edible, I think we made it more accessible for people who were interested to try it,” Carbone said.

So, will there be more cicada flavors in the coming weeks?

“Yeah, it depends,” said Carbone. “We had a lot of people reach out to us because they missed this batch of ice cream. But if we find someone who has been on their land for a long time and can speak to its organic nature, we might make it again.”

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