This Café's Valentine's Day Ice Cream Special Is So Spicy It Requires Customers To Sign A Waiver
A Glasgow café has come out with an ice cream so spicy that customers must be at least 18 years old to order it and must sign a waiver before it's eaten. The Aldwych Café and Ice Cream Parlor's Valentine's Day ice cream special is about 500 times spicier than Tabasco sauce and measures at 1,569,300 SHU on the Scoville scale, the measurement used to gauge heat from chile peppers. The waiver warns that consuming the frozen dairy treat "could be a risk of personal injury, illness & possible loss of life."
Aldwych Café owner Martin Bandoni told the NY Post that when scooping "Respiro Del Diavolo," which translates to "Breath of the Devil," he and servers must wear protective gloves. "Chile can have different effects on the skin especially if you leave it for too long."
Bandoni's brother Lee told the Post that the spicy ice cream began in Italy. "There was a place called Devils Bridge and with that, the Italian ice cream families used to meet up once a year and discuss how the year went for them. At that point, if there were any men that showed bravery then they would eat this ice cream. So, because of the Devils Bridge, they called this the Breath of the Devil."
The recipe for the sweat-inducing cool treat is top secret and is made fresh daily using a traditional Italian recipe from 1936. Owner Martin thinks that it's a great Valentine's Day or dreamy date treat.
"A lot of Italian guys go and have a romantic evening with their girlfriends or wives and they will have some this ice cream because it is a well-known fact that chili is an aphrodisiac and it is nice with a glass of wine bubbling in your mouth," said Martin. "So we will sell it here until just after Valentine's Day, people should come try it."
Although the ice cream is unusual, its price point isn't. A scoop of the sweet heat will cost you £2 or about $2.83 — not including airfare to Glasgow. If you've got that much to spend on a plane ticket for V-Day, your sweetheart might prefer one of these breathtakingly romantic Valentine's Day getaways instead.