Here's What Fireweed Ice Cream Is And What It Should Taste Like

Some ice cream flavors have stood the test of time, like coffee, pistachio, and plain old chocolate. But more and more, it seems like the world of ice cream is expanding. Every shop has its own unique and uncommon ice cream flavors on offer these days, though some are certainly more adventurous than others. In the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, one of these adventurous ice cream flavors that you should be on the lookout for is fireweed.

Fireweed ice cream is pink in color, with a subtle floral, fruity taste that, unless you've encountered these plants — or this ice cream — in the wild, is difficult to describe. But it is the kind of uniquely delicious flavor that once people try it, they simply can't get it out of their minds. Both the color and the flavor of fireweed ice cream come from the bright magenta flowers of the fireweed plant, which grows across much of the northern hemisphere — including most of the U.S. — but is especially common in places like Alaska.

The reason it's called fireweed — Chamerion angustifolium, for the botanists out there — is that this plant loves disturbed areas. When a wildfire passes through, killing the local plant life, fireweed is one of the first plants to establish itself in the burn scar. The plants typically grow from 4 to 6 feet tall, sprouting plumes of flowers from the tops. Given the plant's tendency to colonize recently disturbed areas, on a summer hike in wildfire country, you will often encounter dense fields of just fireweed, beautiful magenta flowers swaying in the breeze.

Fireweed ice cream is a flavor that lovers of the unusual won't want to miss, but it is undoubtedly one of the harder ice cream varieties to get your hands on. If you have to have it, your best bet might be a culinary trip to Alaska. Given the abundance of fireweed up there, you can find a number of ice cream parlors in The Last Frontier serving up those floral pink scoops. Plus, while you're there, you can also try some other unusual culinary traditions of the area, like reindeer meat pizza.

If a trip to Alaska for ice cream isn't in the cards, you aren't out of options. Scoops Handmade Ice Cream in North Bend, Oregon, is also known to have fireweed ice cream on the menu, along with other interesting flavors like marionberry-blackberry and wildflower honey lavender. Alternatively, you could try making it yourself at home. Aside from the Deep South, fireweed grows in most U.S. states. You could try to find some in the wild — look for recently disturbed land — or you could grow it in your own garden. Fireweed has long been a wild food used by those living in places where it is abundant, and every part of the plant is useful. The young shoots can be eaten as a green vegetable, the leaves are used for tea, the nectar makes a prized honey, and both ice cream and jelly can be made from the fireweed flowers. For most of us, this subtle, summery ice cream may be a bit out of reach. But if you find yourself in Alaska in the summertime — or driving up the Oregon coast — it's a taste of the wild that you won't want to miss.