Tiger Tail Ice Cream

Canadians love their tiger tail ice cream. Oddly enough, this retro favorite is almost impossible to find outside of the Great White North. Tiger tail doesn’t call for rare ingredients foraged from the Canadian Rockies, nor is it intellectual property of the government. It just doesn’t seem to appeal to anyone except Canadians.

A ribbon of black licorice swirled into an orange-flavored ice cream base gives this tiger its stripes. The old-school flavor sold well in soda parlors from the 1950s to the 1970s, and many Canadians now consider it a childhood classic. As curious as it may seem, kids (and nostalgic adults) are among the biggest fans of the citrus and black licorice combination.

Local and international creameries in Canada sell tiger tail ice cream, including Baskin-Robbins and Kawartha Dairy. Ashley Chapman, vice president of Chapman’s Ice Cream in Ontario, Canada, notes that tiger tail isn’t one of their top sellers. They simply keep the endemically-beloved flavor around “because loyal tiger tail fans raise an enormous fuss whenever its future appears in jeopardy.”