Chin Chin Labs
Liquid-nitrogen ice cream? Twice as cool
Everyone loves ice cream – who doesn’t? It’s a fitting way to end a meal. So when a shop opens up that only makes ice cream, you know they’re onto something. But what’s special about this ice cream parlour is that its preparation is a little different. They make their ice cream with liquid nitrogen – it’s that vapour cloud you would normally see in chemistry class. This is ‘Chin Chin Labs’, Europe’s only liquid nitrogen ice cream parlour.
Tucked away in the winding roads of Camden, the place was a bit tough to find – but then again, which Camden store isn’t? The shop only has two mainstay flavours; and typically, they’re vanilla and chocolate. Every week, they introduce some unique flavours that will definitely intrigue you: burnt butter caramel, or maybe jasmine and sesame? The flavours sound like those a mad scientist would conjure up, and maybe that’s what they were going for with the shop’s aesthetic. Preparing the ice cream in front of you, it resembles more a chemistry lab than a dessert parlour – cylindrical tubes and mysterious vapours give that scientific vibe.
In terms of pricing, it is a bit on the expensive side: depending on what you go for, roughly a fiver. But that’s for a reason: one, they’re using very unusual ingredients to make the ice cream, and two, it’s more the experience you pay for – everyone loves the dramatic effect of smoke billowing out of the cups. The ice cream is fantastic as always, and there’s something different to the way normal ice cream is had. Normal ice cream can sometimes have ice crystals inside; this texture was consistent throughout.
The Observer have called this place the ‘future of ice cream’, and that sort of has a double meaning: it definitely seems like this place is from the future, coming up with a unique way to make food. And lastly, this parlour might start a new trend; one of using liquid nitrogen to make desserts. It’s happened in Hong Kong already; time London brought on the next wave.
49-50 Camden Lock Place, NW1 8AF
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