It’s that time of year when I eat ice cream as often as I can. Because WINTER IS COMING. When I heard a Museum of Ice Cream pop-up exhibit was in NYC, coinciding perfectly with my annual binge, I had to get! Metaphorical winter is already here: the museum is completely sold out for its entire limited run. Freeze my sweet, giddy heart! Unless you are among the few, the happy few who bought tickets early, you’ll never make it inside the museum of sugary, frozen bliss.
“I’m a New York blogger! I can’t miss the most blog-worthy NYC event of the summer!” I ‘screamed. Then, being the social media maven I am, I worked some Twitter magic. I got myself a ticket.
Here’s The Scoop on the Museum of Ice Cream (without Instagram filters)
The museum is cute, it’s fun! It’s very similar to the rainbow bagel trend: picture-worthy but over-hyped.
People are selling tickets on Craigslist for $100 dollars or more! IT’S NOT WORTH THAT! DON’T BUY THOSE TICKETS! I think it was worth the $20 I spent on my ticket, but I’m honestly not certain. You’ll have to tell me at the end of this article.
The minute you walk in the entrance of the Museum of Ice Cream, you’re welcomed with ice cream. The Scoop of the Week features ice cream from local New York businesses, which is great. This week McConnell’s Fine Ice Creams was scooping a Boysenberry Rose Milk Jam Ice Cream topped with a Maman’s homemade crumble.
Different than any ice cream I’ve had before, the rose and jam combination was tasty.
A perfect idea to start with a taste of what we all came for. After licking our spoons clean, we entered the first room of the museum which is dedicated ice cream cones. Supposedly.
But really it begins with edible balloons!
You suck the air out of the inflated sugar and your voice is affected by the helium. It’s totally cute! It didn’t really have anything to do with ice cream, but that’s okay! Strict adherence to the theme isn’t necessary, right? I’ll always give allowances to things that make me sound funny!
Next we headed to the Scoop area.
I learned ice cream originated in China. Are you as surprised to learn that as I was? It’s a fun fact to know, might help us win bar trivia some day. Here I scooped some disgusting, play-dough-like-non-ice-cream substance (another rainbow bagel similarity!) onto a mound of other scoops and tried to pretend it was a fun activity. At least it matched my dress?
I tried ignored the advertisement for the cartoon that sponsored said scooping. Yes, this museum has major corporate sponsors, like Fox and Tinder (yes, the broadcasting company and the dating app)… Now if Play-Doh sponsored this, that would’ve been cute!
Next we entered the Chocolate Chamber.
Honestly, this room was a huge let down though. It was as if there had been a miscommunication with the chocolate sponsor, Dove. Chocolate projections swirled on the walls. There was no activity in this room, not even anything to read. It felt like a chamber where naughty Oompa Loompa children are sent for time-out.
The room smelled cloyingly of chocolate. We all stood around awkwardly, waiting to be let into the next room.
Which was the best room. The highlight of the museum, I fell for it hook, line, and sprinkle.
A SWIMMING POOL FULL OF RAINBOW SPRINKLES
That look on my face as I jump into the pool of 11,000 rainbow sprinkles, it’s not just for the cameras. That’s a look of true joy. I love rainbow sprinkles! They’re happiness in tiny, edible form!
The Pool Rules warn CAUTION: MAY CAUSE SPONTANEOUS HAPPINESS. It’s true!
So there I was, knee-deep in rainbow sprinkles, and it was just silly and fun, like a dream I had when I was 5 years old. That’s when I realized, maybe for some people, $10o is a small price to pay to feel like a kid again for 5 minutes. Maybe that’s what this “museum” is all about. Maybe it’s also about helping kids hear the word “museum” and think FUN rather than BORING. That’s worth a lot.
You can find better tasting ice cream at dozens of other New York dessert establishments. You can learn more about ice cream on Wikipedia then you will in this museum (though Wikipedia does not have adorable museum guides dressed in ridiculous, uniform pink rompers). But there’s no where else in the world that you can jump in a giant pool of sprinkles.
The Museum of Ice Cream Miracle Berry
Just like it began, the Museum of Ice Cream ends with ice cream. And a tiny, taste-changing miracle.
For the grand finalé of the museum, we dissolved small, red “miracle berries” on our tongues. The berry makes your tastebuds flip-flop: suddenly sour tastes sweet. Pink and purple vanilla cones were topped with lemon slices to give us this trippy taste experience. It was refreshing lemon without any of the pucker. Cool trick, Museum!
A look around at some ice cream inspired art (which made me feel like an art snob), a glance at the gift shop (where I resisted buying ice cream cone earrings), and a Tinder-sponsored photo-op or 3. There you have it. That’s the entirety of the Museum of Ice Cream!
Cone Art (for Cone Heads?).
Ice cream scoop seesaw photo-op. I know, it’s totes adorbs. (How many boyfriends do you think get forced into this photo-op on the daily?)
If I had Tinder, would I make this my profile pic? “Swipe right if you want to share an ice cream sandwich!”
Yes, the Museum of Ice Cream is sold out, but you’re really not missing out too much. Hope I comforted your FOMO fears! And convinced you not to by $100 tickets from anyone!
If you read this blog post while eating an ice cream sundae from McConnell’s or Black Tap, I’d say you get 90% of the experience of the Museum of Ice Cream. If you buy a big bag of rainbow sprinkles, dump it on the floor of your apartment, and sit on the pile while eating the sundae and reading this post, you’re at 95%!
I really like the ice cream hanging from the ceiling xxx