Rain or shine didn’t dampen or dissipate the public love for ice-cream, at Singapore’s 1st ice-cream bash featuring local brands. Activities such as learning which foods go well with which ice-creams, taught by none other than the local food guru KF Seetoh; and eating contests to see who could down the most chili chocolate flavoured ice-cream set the swirl for a night of fun.

Aptly called “I Love Ice Cream”, it was held from Nov 19 – 20 at Clarke Quay, and was organised by Up BrandBuzz, a boutique creative agency, which aims to make this a yearly event targeting ice-cream lovers. Pitched in a carnivalesque setting, played to the beat of live music, 12 local stalls were featured, from brands like Chocolate & Gelato, Salted Caramel, Latte e Miele, Scoopy’s & Cream, to the classic Haato, a local brand that has been around for years in Singapore.

Unique flavours that stood out at the event were flavours like Chocolate & Gelato’s Umbra with Sour Plum, Salted Caramel’s Horlicks TimTam, Latte e Miele’s White Chocolate Lavender and Scoop of Art’s Mars Bar and Sea Salt.

Top honours went to the Umbra with Sour Plum, a delightful, melt-in-your-mouth mix of sour, sweet, and umami that will have you coming back for more. “I especially loved the Umbra with Sour Plum ice-cream, it’s unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before,” said Daniel Loh, an executive who was there for the 2 days the event was held.

Coming a close second was the White Chocolate Lavender, with its heady (might want to tone down on the lavender flavouring) and dreamy pairing of lavender with white chocolate, an after dinner treat that might be a better cure for insomnia than the de rigueur glass of warm milk.

A close contender would be the Horlicks TimTam, a treat that could very well be considered a meal on its own calories wise, given the satisfyingly full feeling you get from consuming just one scoop! As for the Mars Bar and Sea Salt, it was a shot of  nostalgia, harking back to your childhood days, where a Mars Bar was an indulgence to be enjoyed only during festive holidays. While others may have experimented and interpreted the Mars Bar in other ways (fried Mars Bar anyone?), the sea salt complemented the rich and creamy tastes of the caramel and milk chocolate in the candy, making it seem like a decadent gourmet goodie.

With interesting and uncommon flavours of ice cream everywhere, I Love Ice Cream was definitely the perfect place to be at for sweet tooths. One can only hope that there’ll be wackier creations such as this year’s, should the event return in the future.