Tyra Banks says she’s bringing her mysterious ‘hot’ ice cream to New York. But, like, what is it exactly?

• Tyra Banks is trying something new.
• The legendary supermodel is now selling ice cream with a twist: it’s hot.
• Confused? We were, too. So we investigated.

Supermodel Tyra Banks is selling an oxymoron: hot ice cream.

Yes, hot ice cream.

Since late September, Banks has debuted two versions of the dessert, dubbed Hot Mama, at her ice cream shop in Sydney. Although both were available for just a week, her team told Business Insider that it was coming to New York this winter.

Banks has been promoting Hot Mama on social media. Some videos have been watched over 1 million times. Many commentators, however, say they are confused about what exactly “hot” ice cream is.

Business Insider was, too. So we contacted Smize & Dream, Bank’s ice cream company, to get more details about Hot Mama, like how it’s made or if it’s just melted ice cream. The Smize & Dream team has remained mostly tight-lipped.

“We love that you’re curious… that’s kind of the point,” a spokesperson told us.

‘Ice cream reimagined’

The Smize & Dream team said Hot Mama isn’t melted ice cream. It’s also, they said, not hot chocolate nor a latte.

“It’s ice cream reimagined — churned, simmered, and perfected to be served warm and sippable, poured into a couture 3D cup, and finished with signature SMiZE flair,” they said in a press release.

The team describes Hot Mama as “the liquid version of your favorite ice cream scoop,” adding that it’s “a culinary contradiction that shouldn’t make sense, but somehow, deliciously does.”

Now, if that only led to more questions than answers, Banks also shared insights into how she and the Smize & Dream team developed hot ice cream. They said they spent over a year testing texture, formulation, and temperature.

“At first, we tried just heating standard ice cream bases, but they turned sticky, gloopy, or too thin,” Banks said in the press release. “The breakthrough came when we found the perfect viscosity — not too thick, not too thin — where hot ice cream still felt as dreamy as cold ice cream.”

The process, the Smize & Dream team said, involved reworking “traditional” bases and “rebalancing fats, sugars, and stabilizers to maintain that ‘melt-on-the-tongue’ sensation.”

Hmm.

Some people have tried Hot Mama at the Sydney store and shared reviews of the hot ice cream on social media, offering another window into what it actually is. One TikTok user said the dessert is “thicker than milk, but not as thick as, like, a cream consistency.”

“If you put a milkshake in the microwave and then drink that — and it wasn’t gross,” they said, adding that it’s “delicious” and “so good.”

Some users on TikTok have wondered if Hot Mama is comparable to crème anglaise, a sweet French custard sauce.

The only way to know for sure may be to try it, which is maybe the whole point.

Banks first told her Instagram followers in 2020 that she was developing a “premium ice cream” brand. She attributes her love of ice cream to her mother and said she now thinks about ice cream all day, every day, and even in the middle of the night. “I’m like an ice cream sommelier,” Banks says on the company’s website.

Banks announced her first ice cream flavor — The Best Vanilla I Ever Had — in 2021 and began shipping nationwide in the US that year. Her Sydney-based flagship store opened this year.

And now she’s launched Hot Mama, which sounds amazing, whatever it is.

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