Gianni's Mint Chocolate Ice Cream Sticks

What is it?

Mint and chocolate is a pairing that turns up across the freezer, and one of the few that works better cold than warm. Menthol is the reason. It triggers the same receptors that detect low temperature, so mint produces a genuine cooling sensation independent of how cold the thing actually is. On a frozen stick that effect compounds rather than competes, which is why mint choc ice cream feels colder than a vanilla at the same temperature. The centre here is mint rather than a mint-flavoured vanilla, so it leans sharper than the rest of the Gianni's stick range. Chocolate is doing the same job it always does on a stick, snapping first and giving way to something soft behind it.