What is the Museum of Ice Cream and why is it so trendy? The Museum of Ice Cream is a mini pop-up museum currently located in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan in New York City that celebrates ice cream.I was lucky enough to snag two tickets to the wildly popular Museum of Ice Cream last Tuesday. Tickets have been sold out for weeks but because of it's popularity the organizers opened up more dates for September. I will admit the process purchasing tickets for this reminded me of when I was tried to get sold out tickets to see Beyoncé. New York Foodies do not play when it comes to food events. I hear tickets for certain days sold out in minutes! So when I was able to get my tickets I jumped for joy.I wanted to be surprised when I went so I managed to stay away from all of the social media posts about the museum. I went into this thinking there would be an educational aspect where we would learn about ice cream's history and possibly it's popularity.
To my surprise, there were no detailed education sections or history lessons on ice cream. Instead of walking around reading or listening to a guide, your 5 senses were intrigued. You were given sweet treats in every room you entered, and the whole place was decked out in hip ice-cream themed art work. Which is quite refreshing. It's out of the norm when one thinks of a traditional museum visit.Ticket prices were about $18USD per person and the full experience lasts about 30-40 minutes. You are usually grouped in with several people and are instantly greeted with the flavor of the day ice cream. The two attractions that stood to me the most were "The Edible Balloons" and "The Sprinkles Pool".If you follow food trends, you'll know that this one of them. There are several Youtube of people enjoying edible balloons at dinner tables (mainly in Chicago) so when I saw them being made here I got really excited because this was one thing I could scratch off of my food bucket list. Unfortunately, this still remains on my list because I failed at eating the balloon. I tried twice and ended up with sticky glasses and sticky hands. One day I'll succeed, but it was fun watching and hearing everyone eat their balloons and talk to each other with the funny helium voice.
The sprinkles pool, I will say is pretty cool. Hands down an original adult experience for me. The sprinkles look real but they are not. If they were, things would get very sticky very fast. But this does not take away from how much fun it is to sit or lay down in this colorful non-water pool and throw sprinkles in the air. It sort of reminded me of kids playing in a sandbox.
This was such a great idea and I applaud the staff. Everything was organized, timely, and we did not feel rushed. For about 40 minutes, I did not think of the stresses in life. I ate ice-cream, took a bunch of photos and just had fun. I felt like a kid again. I would definitely go again just to hang out in the pool and attempt to eat a balloon again.As of today (9/7/16) all tickets seem to be sold out but be sure to check the museum's main website for more info: http://www.museumoficecream.com 
