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Happy little Vegemites? Canberra gets a taste of Vegemite ice cream on Australia Day

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You can see the brain ticking over - "Do I like this or not?".- as customers in Canberra try Vegemite ice cream on Australia Day.

"Then you see the eyes go up and the big smile and a few moments later whether they accept it or reject it," ice cream maker John Marshall said.

"Some people have small walls; some people have insurmountable walls [when it comes to taste]. It's just so interesting. This is where I get all my fun from."

After taste-testing it ourselves, we have to say the Vegemite ice cream is salty, smooth, a little malty, almost caramel-y. It doesn't taste like the stuff you dab on toast  for breakfast. But it is its own unique flavour.

John, the ice cream magician at Frugii Dessert Laboratory in Braddon, first made Vegemite ice cream for Australia Dayt about 10 years ago.

He and wife Ed decided to sell it again on Australia Day 2017 after Vegemite was returned home with Bega Cheese buying the brand back  from the US. 

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"Not only is it in Australian hands again but it's Australia Day so we thought we'd have a wonderful celebration," Ed said.

John said to each litre of custard, he added 45 grams of Vegemite and 5 grams of salt - the salt crucial to pique the tastebuds and accentuate the flavour.

So what did the punters think?

"It's more like a salted caramel than Vegemite," Grace Bannister-Tyrrell, of Turner, said.

Anna Lockley, of Braddon, reckoned: "It tastes less like Vegemite the more you eat it".

Danny Suggate and Kate Alston of Braddon were surprised.

"That's not bad," Danny said. "That's done really well."

Originally from the US, Veronica and Erik Doeer, of Watson, were fresh from becoming new Australian citizens that morning when they called into Fruggi to try the Vegemite ice cream with daughter Zoe.

It got a mixed reaction.

"I don't like Vegemite, I'm sorry to say," Veronica said. "I know that doesn't make me a very good Australia but they both like it"

Zoe, at least, was one happy little Vegemite, giving the ice cream a thumbs up.