The most expensive ice cream in the world costs $60,000. To try it, you have to fly to Tanzania — but it's a pretty cushy trip. You'll fly first class, stay in a luxury resort and have the ice cream made right before your eyes on Mount Kilimanjaro.
"The World's More Expensive Most Expensive Ice Cream" sundae is offered by Three Twins Ice Cream, an independent organic ice cream company based in California with three shops in Northern California and wholesale ice cream products sold in all fifty states. The $60,000 ice cream was inspired by founder Neal Gottlieb's hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in January 2011, where he made ice cream in the snow.
So why does it cost $60,000?
In addition to first-class flights and five-star accommodations to be determined after buying the ice cream, the experience includes a guided climb up Mount Kilimanjaro with a local guide and Gottlieb himself, who will hand-churn a batch of ice cream with glacial ice from the mountain's summit.
"The process starts with harvesting ice from the glacier, which is put into a dry bag, into a backpack and carried down to camp," Gottlieb tells CNBC Make It. "I must say, this is not easy on the knees going downhill!
"At camp the ice is broken up. A small pot is put inside a larger pot and the space between is filled with ice and salt, which lowers the temperature of the mixture. Milk, cream, sugar and flavoring are mixed and added to the pot. The mixture is stirred, and the part that freezes to the wall of the inner pot is scraped off. Eventually the whole mixture freezes and you have ice cream."
Gottlieb can make vanilla or other flavors requested.
Gottlieb, who was a contestant on "Survivor 2016: Koah Rong" on CBS, founded Three Twins Ice Cream in 2005, after having worked at The Gap corporate headquarters after college and joining the Peace Corps in Morocco.
"I wanted to combine my capitalist side with my do-gooder side," he says. "Ice cream was a way for me to start small, be organic and spread joy. Plus it was something that I could scale up from a small ice cream shop to a brand."
Gottlieb says $10,000 of the $60,000 ice cream cost goes toward an African environmental non-profit. The purchase of the ice cream helps raise awareness of the mountain's glaciers predicted to disappear in the next 10 to 15 years due to climate change, according to Gottlieb.
"Although the glaciers disappearing may be more of a result of localized climate change than global climate change, I think that their disappearance is a good lesson in how climate change can bring about profound changes in relatively short periods of time and should be taken seriously."
It typically costs $1,000 to $3,000 to climb Mount Kilimanjaro with a guide, according to Gottlieb.
No one has bought the $60,000 ice cream yet.
The $60,000 ice cream is not the only expensive one in Three Twins Ice Cream's menu. The company is offering World's Most Expensive Ice Cream Sundae, which is a banana split made with syrups from three rare dessert wines, served with an ice cream spoon from the 1850s and comes accompanied by a cellist performance. It costs $3,333.33.
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