Legend has it that in China there is an ice-cream that simply doesn’t melt even when left at room temperature for hours. So the guys at RocketNews24 sent a report to investigate on this myth.

Now, we’ve posted about some pretty special ice-cream treats, like the sinful Vice Lolly and the ice cream made from breast milk, but an ice-cream that doesn’t melt? That was unheard of, so a reporter from the Japanese wacky news site journeyed to China to uncover the truth about this legendary frozen dessert. He picked up one of these special lollies generically called “Banana” from a 7-11 but learned that the popsicle made by Nestle China can be found in pretty much any shop around the country. While you might expect a treat called Banana to actually taste like the world’s most popular fruit, this particular lolly has a plain vanilla ice-cream core encased in a sort of yellow gelatin, which the consumer can peel in order to reveal the vanilla center.

It’s pretty hard to resist eating an ice-cream under the scorching Chinese sun, but the brave Japanese reporter manged to suppress his urges and carry on the unique experiment. He tears open the packaging revealing an amber-colored treat and places it on the hot pavement. Thirty minutes into the experiment, the news agent reports no signs of melting. After an hour of careful observation, he notices a clear sheen over the gelatinous peel, but no signs of melting. In total, the ice-cream was left over three hours in the hot sun, on a summer afternoon, and it did not melt. Once the sun itself gave up and drifted over the horizon, the reporter decided to see what a melt-proof ice-cream actually tastes like. But, after peeling away the yellow gelatin his hands were left covered in hot sticky vanilla soup…

So can Banana be called the world’s first melt-proof ice cream lolly? Technically no, but Nestle’s idea did give birth to a myth that certainly proved very beneficial sales-wise.

Photos by Kuzo, for RocketNews24