The Real Reason You Rarely See Grape Ice Cream

For some flavors, they seem to be made for desserts, from candy to cake to ice cream. Think along the lines of cherry, strawberry, chocolate, or vanilla. But there's one fruit flavor that seems to only be used in artificially flavored candies, and that's grape. Grape hasn't been able to translate well to many desserts, but especially not ice cream which is largely due to its makeup.

According to Thrillist, grapes contain up to 84% water, which means they freeze very hard rather than chewy. So when you get a chunk of fruit in what would be grape ice cream, chances are it would be very hard. But grape ice cream is not altogether mythical. It has been made, but it is not so easy to find — not only because it is challenging to make, but also because it isn't a particularly pleasing idea to most people. So, ice cream companies have a lot less reason to put in the work to make it.

Per Snopes, there is an unusual rumor that has made the rounds that the FDA banned grape ice cream because grapes are poisonous to dogs. But that wasn't true at all. It once again comes back to the difficulty of making flavorful grape ice cream that is nice to eat. Apart from the texture and high water content, grapes don't have much flavor without their skins, according to Taste of Home. That means you would have to be very careful in the process of creating grape ice cream to ensure it tastes good, and that just isn't easy to do on a large scale for ice cream brands.

So, if you really want to try grape ice cream, you'll likely need to try making it yourself. Keep in mind that you'll likely want to avoid using too much artificial flavoring to get a good flavor. That means it might be best to use concentrate, grape jam, or grape juice. Even then, you'll likely end up with something closer to a granita, which is much icier than creamy ice cream.