Tyra Banks taught the world how to smize — that is, how to smile with the eyes but not the mouth, her signature move to achieve a fashion-editorial look in photos. Now, she is trying to introduce another conceptual head-scratcher: “hot ice cream.”
In June, Ms. Banks, the host of “America’s Next Top Model” and one of the most famous faces in fashion, opened Smize & Dream, an ice cream shop in Sydney, Australia. She said the shop was dedicated to her mother, with whom she spent many Friday nights at a Häagen-Dazs near Hollywood Boulevard, where the two would envision teenage Tyra’s future modeling career.
Touching origin story aside, Instagram and TikTok users have one major question about Ms. Banks’s “hot ice cream,” and not necessarily for lack of trying it.
What actually is it?
Is it a custard? Is it melted gelato? Befuddlement over the product has inspired several segments on the podcast “Who? Weekly,” with the hosts pleading with Australian listeners to call in with details about the ice cream that is not icy at all. Adding to the confusion, Ms. Banks named the product “Hot Mama.”
Cody Jacob, 29, a content creator from Cape Cod, spent time looking for answers.
“I did not understand it, so I started doing some digging,” Mr. Jacob said. “And once I realized nobody knew what it was — including, I guess, Tyra Banks — I just decided to make a video about it.”
Those who have tried the concoction, which Smize & Dream began selling last month, can’t quite place it, either. Jo Dunham, 43, a YouTuber who posts videos about A.D.H.D. and autism, was intrigued when she heard the name of the drink.
“It tasted like chewed-up arrowroot biscuits that your toddler spat out,” she said in an email. “It just tasted like soggy biscuits. As far as texture it was just like water, not thick in the slightest, just water. And it was warm. Not hot, not cold, mildly more than room temperature. The kind of temperature that if it was a coffee I would say it had gone cold.”
When Amy Harrison, 27, visited Smize & Dream in the Darling Harbour shopping district in Sydney, the “Hot Mama” cost Ms. Harrison 12.50 Australian dollars (approximately $8.20) and was served in a paper cup with a straw.
“I was just a bit curious on what the whole ‘hot ice cream’ thing was,” Ms. Harrison, who works in marketing, said in a phone interview. “It’s not super hot. I’d say it’s more medium lukewarm, but still, the experience of sipping something like that through a straw was really interesting.”
According to Ms. Banks, the beverage is purposefully served a notch below hot so that it does not scald the tongue. It is meant to be safe for a child to drink immediately upon serving.
When asked to describe it, Ms. Banks said a lot, but never quite managed to land on anything resembling a clear description. She may be purposely refusing to de-muddy the waters, as the current air of mystery seems to be attracting customers. (A publicist for the shop declined to share the exact recipe for hot ice cream.)
“I’m obsessed with being first, or unique, with something,” she said. “I was trying to make sure that the consistency wasn’t familiar in the mouth. So that’s why it’s hard for me to say, ‘It’s like this.’”
Her attempts to describe the tepid libation were not particularly elucidating.
“It’s artisanal,” she said.
“It’s hand-done.”
“It’s not thick like a milkshake and not thin like hot chocolate.”
“It’s a richness.”
“It’s a consistency that’s not super familiar.”
“The other day it veered too sweet.”
“Like a cream-based soup. Like a soup in the winter that’s just like, ‘Oh, this just feels like Mama,’ kind of.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has regulated the specific proportions of milk and cream required for a frozen treat to be sold as ice cream since 1977. At the moment, Ms. Banks is selling her product only in Australia, where she is not subject to U.S.D.A. regulations, but she plans to sell the sweet, watery brew stateside as early as this winter.
Jeni Britton, a James Beard Award-winning ice cream maker and the founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, believes ice cream is ripe for innovation.
“In terms of being hot, I would say this is a rule-breaking idea, and that is also fun,” Ms. Britton said in a phone interview. “It is OK to have the official definitions of what most people think about it and then just twist it.”
In the middle of the interview, Ms. Britton, who had not yet seen photos or videos of Ms. Banks’s hot ice cream, took her phone away from her ear and began to tap.
“Oh, I see,” Ms. Britton mused as she watched Smize & Dream videos. “To me, it looks like ice cream base flavored with something — maybe biscuits — and strained. Not melted ice cream, but prefrozen. Exactly what you would pour into the ice cream freezer to churn into ice cream.
“But no way to know!”
Sandra E. Garcia is a Times reporter covering style and culture.
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