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The Licktators

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Overview

The Licktators is an ice cream manufacturing company located in London that has been described by the high-end department store Selfridges, as “more Sid and Nancy than Ben & Jerry”.[1] It was founded by Matt O’Connor, formerly of The Icecreamists. He uses different flavors and textures to create his ice creams such as donated breast milk, bread, roses, and absinthe. The company once served a three-course Sundae Lunch which featured pea, beef, and horseradish flavors.[2] The company gained notoriety in 2011 for its “Baby Gaga” breast milk ice cream, which is made with donated breast milk. In 2015 they collaborated with the band, Blur, to create an ice cream flavor based on their album, The Magic Whip.[3]

In 2013, O'Connor created and published a cookbook called “The Icecreamists: Boutique Ice Creams and Other Guilty Pleasures to Make and Enjoy at Home” with recipes that include ice creams, sorbettos, cocktails, sundaes, and desserts.[4] It is about making luxurious ice cream and gelato at home, and is described as part ice cream bible, part confessional. It contains not only recipes, but a history of ice cream and its consumption, the history of The Icecreamists, the breast milk ice cream controversy, suggestions on the best ways/means to make your own ice cream, and the Ten Commandments of Cool, with such suggestions as “Thou Will Let the Ice Cream Soften, and Thou Will Never Refreeze”.[5] The recipes feature ingredients such as tabasco sauce (“Apocalypse Chow”), ginger (“Gingiana Jones”), Red Bull (“The Abominabull Snowman”), and marmalade (“Lady Marmalade”), and liquors such as Kahlua (“Dessert Storm”), whiskey (“The Godfather”), Irish cream liqueur (“Priscilla Cream of the Dessert”), and absinthe (“Sex Bomb”). The breast milk ice cream was launched in 2011 with the help of Victoria Hiley, a breastfeeding mom and advocate who answered an ad asking for breastmilk posted on Mumsnet, an online mother’s group. She donated 30 fluid ounces of breast milk which helped make the first 50 servings of this ice cream.[6] It was relaunched as “Royal Baby Gaga” in 2015 in celebration of the birth of Princess Charlotte and to remind the Duchess of Cambridge and mothers around the U.K. of the benefits of breastfeeding.

Personal

Matt O’Connor founded the “Fathers 4 Justice” organization in 2001 to pursue the rights of fathers after he was denied access to his two children after a difficult divorce. In its mission statement, Fathers4Justice advocates “to ensure that all children have a meaningful, loving relationship with their fathers”, and “to ensure fathers have a legal presumption of 50/50 shared parenting after separation”.[7] He was involved in many protests in the pursuit of fathers’ rights, and gained the support of Sir Bob Geldof. The company was briefly shut down in 2009, but is now run by his second wife, Nadine, who wants the organization to be “children-focused”.

He has been involved with ice cream for over 20 years. As a designer, he helped launch Vienneta and Magnum, and designed the packaging for Loseley ice cream. He studied flavor theory in Italy at Bologna’s Carigiani Gelato University. He works with Mark Broadbent, his chef, and Alex Kammerling, a mixologist for Grey Goose. He has been married twice and has four children; two, aged 21 and 19 (with his first wife), a stepdaughter, aged 17, and a son, aged 11, with his second wife.

Current Flavors

The company has a multitude of ice creams packaged in black and neon Sex Pistol album cover-inspired tubs which include the following:

Baby Gaga – made with breast milk, Madagascar vanilla pods, and lemon zest

John Lemon – combines thick ripples of zesty lemon curd with British milk and whipping cream

God Save the Queen – contains an herbal Viagra-like stimulant

General Custard – a blend of British milk and whipping cream, eggs, and vanilla pods

Choc and Roll Rehab – made with chocolate and pralines

Jiggy Pop – popcorn-flavored ice cream

Doughnut Disturb – contains cinnamon doughnuts

Marshmallow Law – marshmallow ice cream studded with chewy marshmallow pieces

Vice – an intense, female Viagra-like ice cream made with Ecuadoran chocolate and Lady Prelox, a plant-based pleasure enhancer

The Magic Whip – vanilla ice cream with raspberry filling

In 2009, they were threatened with legal action by the Sex Pistols after the debut of “God Save the Cream” (a take-off of the 1977 Sex Pistols song, God Save the Queen) which contained an herbal Viagra-type ingredient.[8] In March 2011, The Icecreamists ice cream parlor was ordered to stop selling the “Baby Gaga” breast milk ice cream by command of the Westminster Council. After two complaints from members of the public, and apprehension about the product on the part of the Health Protection Agency and Food Standards Agency, officials confiscated all ice cream that contained breast milk so that it could undergo testing for potential communicable pathogens contained in bodily fluids.[9] After sending a letter demanding O’Connor refrain from selling the ice cream, they stated that they had the owner’s consent to stop making and selling the ice cream during the testing phase. O’Connor, however, insisted that the breast milk was screened and tested using the same processes that blood donor centers and breast milk banks (which receive donated breast milk) use. The health protection agency ultimately, and grudgingly, admitted that after screening the ingredients it was safe for human consumption.[10]

In 2015, Lady Gaga threatened to sue O’Connor for the use of her name in association with the “Baby Gaga” ice cream, claiming that he had used her name without consent.[11] At that time it was renamed “Royal Baby Gaga” to commemorate the birth of Princess Charlotte, daughter of Prince William and Princess Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It was distributed in blue and pink tubs and showed the Duchess of Cambridge holding a baby, accompanied by a pink and blue British flag, not Lady Gaga’s face. He claimed the name was actually created due to the sound that babies make (referencing its meaning as supported in the Oxford English dictionary), and pointed out the fact that she took her stage name from a song that she did not have a trademark for. As a gesture of peace and goodwill he sent tubs of the ice cream to Lady Gaga.

References

  1. ^ Cooshtee. "The Licktators". The Licktators - Original British Licks. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  2. ^ "Matt O'Connor - father for justice and ice cream extremist". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  3. ^ music, Guardian (2015-05-11). "Blur whip up branded ice cream for forthcoming UK tour". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  4. ^ "The Icecreamists by Matt O'Connor". Kitchn. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  5. ^ O'Connor, Matt (2013-06-04). The Icecreamists (1 ed.). Mitchell Beazley. ISBN 9781845337629.
  6. ^ "Someone's re-launched breast milk ice cream in honour of the royal baby". Metro. 2015-04-23. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  7. ^ Fathers4Justice. "Fathers 4 Justice - Our Mission". Fathes 4 Justice. Retrieved 2017-10-19.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  8. ^ "Matt O'Connor - father for justice and ice cream extremist". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  9. ^ "Breast milk ice cream banned from London shop". 2011-03-01. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  10. ^ "Matt O'Connor - father for justice and ice cream extremist". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
  11. ^ "Lady Gaga threatens breast milk ice cream maker". NY Daily News. Retrieved 2017-10-19.
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