Van Leeuwen Teams Up With Netflix For Oniony New Knives Out Flavor
It's been said we're living in the "age of nostalgia," per The Guilfordian, and who are we to argue? For example, American food trucks, which are already deep into their 21st-century renaissance (via IBISWorld), emerged first as the 17th-century pushcart before developing into the 19th-century chuckwagon (via Mobile Cuisine) and ultimately morphing into the motorized catering vehicle made popular in the U.S. after World War II, according to The New York Times. Now, small-batch confectioner, Van Leeuwen, which started out as a New York City ice cream truck back in the aughts and still approaches ice cream as an old-school artisanal pursuit, has come up with a brand-new flavor that calls to mind all manner of days of yore.
First, the new flavor represents a collaboration with Netflix in connection with the release of the first Netflix-produced sequel to 2019's "Knives Out," which is writer-slash-director Rian Johnson's homage to classic detective-driven whodunnits dating all the way back to the 1920s, per Nerdist and BFI. And, like "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," which debuted theatrically in November and comes to Netflix screens on December 23, Van Leeuwen's newest flavor is, itself, a mystery, and one that's deeply rooted in history – root-veggie pun most definitely intended. Join us as we unearth its multilayered mysteries.
Van Leeuwen's new mystery flavor: peeling back the layers
Van Leeuwen's new "Knives Out" ice cream flavor is a mystery whose name may reference a monocle, a 1968 Beatles song, and/or a mystery at once transparent and multi-layered, per British GQ. As the company told Tasting Table in a freshly churned press release, the new flavor – labeled in apt mysterious fashion, starts with Van Leeuwen's signature vanilla ice cream made slightly tangy with a hint of Greek yogurt – to place you in the Greek-set world of the 2022 sequel. Within, you'll find a "glass kind of crunch," as "Glass Onion" star, Kate Hudson characterizes it (via YouTube), and which Van Leeuwen explains is made of crystallized honeycomb candy. But the real draw, it would seem, and what makes this flavor at once ground-breaking and nostalgic, is the "swirl of bourbon, caramelized onion jam" comprising the topping.
That's right, Van Leeuwen's Glass Onion mystery ice cream flavor features a caramelized onion jam – a compelling paradox of sweet and savory that has historical roots going back at least as far as Colonial America (via New England Today) if not further (via Cork Bar & Restaurant). The new flavor, which drops at noon (EST) today, is available at NYC and LA Van Leeuwen stores, and by mail order through Van Leeuwen's website. Free scoops will be available in LA on December 16t at the Glass Onion Live Experience, and in NYC's Union Square on December 23.