Because Grenada grows so much nutmeg, local cooks have found hundreds of ways to use it in food and drink. Nutmeg ice cream is one of the most popular. Unlike nutmeg you might find in a supermarket, Grenadian nutmeg is very fresh and powerfully fragrant — you can grate it directly from the whole seed over the top of the ice cream just before serving, and the smell alone is wonderful.
You can find nutmeg ice cream at beach-side stalls, local restaurants and village shops all over Grenada. It is especially popular at Spicemas Carnival in August, when food vendors set up stalls and the smell of spices mixes with soca music in the street. Many visitors say it is the one taste they remember most clearly from the whole trip.
Nutmeg is used in Grenadian cooking in many other ways too — in hot drinks, in sauces, in rum punch and sprinkled over local soups. But the ice cream version is special because it combines the warmth of a spice with the coolness of ice cream in a way that perfectly matches the tropical heat of the island. It is one of those foods that feels completely right for the place where it was invented.