The Charmery brings confusing, delightful 'picnic' ice cream flavors to Fear Factory event

BALTIMORE -- It might be chilly out, but that doesn't mean we don't want ice cream. 

Amy Kawata is in for Marty on Wednesday, and she went to The Charmery Ice Cream Factory to preview the local business' Halloween-themed flavors. But these aren't your ordinary flavors. 

On the menu for The Charmery's fifth annual Fear Factory holiday event are challenging ice creams meant to confuse yet delight tastebuds, says owner David Alima. 

"We're not trying to gross people out," Alima said. "They might sound a little gross. But when you taste it you go 'okay, I get it.'" 

This year has a spooky picnic theme, and Amy got to try some of the crazy flavors before the event next weekend.

The Fear Factory starts its picnic off with a little chips and dip. Amy's first spoon is a guacamole ice cream with some crushed pepper, red pepper flakes and some tortilla chips.

Amy has an avocado toast every morning, so she was pleasantly surprised by the first flavor.

Next up at the picnic is your salad, so Alima whipped up a watermelon feta salad ice cream with watermelon, feta, crushed mint and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. 

"Wow," Amy said upon her first bite. "This is it, this is the one. It's so good it's like refreshing, it's so good."

The wild flavors are a creative outlet for Alima, he said. The Charmery does a new flavor every week, and Alima wanted an outlet for those combinations that "go a little bit haywire."

"We have a cheese and crackers flavor that we serve normally, that one is always gonna be there," he said. "Some of these flavors get to make it into the rotation, but it's just a creative outlet for me."

Now for the main course of the picnic: a classic Maryland tomato and mayonnaise sandwich. The ice cream uses all the same ingredients. 

"So we took real tomatoes we made tomato water from it, and then we took the mayonnaise and put it in we mayonnaise on the bread, toasted it," Alima said. 

Again, the flavor is a hit for Amy. 

"I was scared about this and it's good," she said. "It has you can taste a little toastiness of it."

To prepare for the inevitable guests at the picnic, the fourth flavor is "ants on a log." If you couldn't tell yet, Alima isn't afraid of putting inconceivable ingredients in ice cream, so the flavor has peanut butter, celery, raisins and... real ants. 

Amy panics, but takes one for the team and takes a bite.  

"Honestly, it tastes like peanut butter," she said. "Protein! Yum." 

Alima likes to end his picnic with a big gin martini, so the last ice cream flavor is for adults only. The ice cream has Baltimore Spirit Company's Shot Tower Gin and blue cheese olives. 

"This is like a flavor explosion in my mouth," Amy said. "Oh my gosh!" 

The Fear Factory will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Charmery Ice Cream Factory, which is located at the Union Collective in Hampden. 

The Charmery will have take-home sampler packs available at their Hampden, Towson and Columbia locations.