Transform Your Chocolate Ice Cream With One Seriously Bold Topping

As a nation, we're obsessed with ice cream — according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the average American eats 20 pounds of this frozen confection every year, be it store-bought or homemade. Chocolate is consistently one of our favorite ice cream flavors (a survey conducted by the IDFA in 2024 puts it in second place behind vanilla) and lends itself to an endless array of toppings including Magic shell, whipped cream, and hot fudge, caramel, or chocolate sauce.

While these ideas are indeed delicious, there's another, bolder topping that's begging to be added to everyone's second favorite ice cream flavor, and guaranteed to make your mouth (and possibly even your eyes) water. We're talking about hot honey aka the ingredient that's been named as one to watch in 2024 by industry insiders, and is currently doing the rounds as a topping for chocolate ice cream on social media and in-store at ice cream parlors like Cold Stone Creamery. People have been going crazy for this spicy substance — essentially regular honey infused with dried chile peppers — drizzled generously over scoops of the rich and creamy treat. Just like many of the unusual flavor combinations out there today, chocolate ice cream and hot honey are a match made in culinary heaven. 

Considering regular honey is already a go-to ingredient for many desserts, using the hot variety in a sweet capacity isn't as unusual as it sounds. In fact, we've seen hot honey used in a number of sweet scenarios already, including in pumpkin pie, drizzled over grilled stone fruit, and even in espresso martinis and affogatos at Starbucks' Reserve Roasteries (the last of which also features ice cream).

Furthermore, savory ingredients have been used to top ice cream on occasion (extra virgin olive oil and sea salt, for example), while chile and chocolate are a well-documented flavor combination in their own right. Pairing these ingredients with honey essentially doubles down on the sweetness of the chocolate ice cream, while adding a distinct spicy kick. In addition to making use of the tried and true sweet and savory, and sweet and spicy tropes (the latter now has its own genre, known as 'swicy' — that's sweet and spicy, to the uninitiated), there's something incredibly satisfying about pairing a hot ingredient with one that's cool and creamy. 

When it comes to enjoying this unique dessert, there really are no rules (though we would suggest using small quantities of honey to begin with). That is, other than to sit back and enjoy it by the bowlful — just as we imagine the person who coined the phrase "sugar and spice and all things nice" did.