"Sticky, but tasty!" Who doesn't remember the phrase Pumba and Simba said in the scene of "The Lion King" in which they taste the most varied species of insects? Certainly some remembered the movie as they read the title of the story. The fact is that the American fast food chain Way Back Burgers really launched this month a new milkshake flavor: cricket.

Calm down, probably the product is not what you should be thinking right now as there is no kind of cricket, grasshopper or derivative, alive or dead, whipped with milk and ice cream. However, the idea of ​​having the taste of the insect is the company's bet to disclose the composition of one of its latest releases. The drink made from Oreo ice cream and cookies has as an ingredient 24 grams of cricket protein powder as a differential.

We're bugging out. Enjoy our high-protein milkshake starting April 1st!

A photo published by Wayback Burgers (@waybackburgers) on Mar 30, 2015 at 11:45 am PDT

Even though the release seemed natural, the idea came from an April Fool's joke. The company, through its Instagram account, published a publicity image announcing the alleged release of an insect-flavored milkshake, more precisely crickets, with a high protein concentration. Well, instead of causing astonishment and disgust, people, surprisingly, received the news with much excitement and numerous orders were placed at the chain stores.

Three months later, the company then effectively launched two new milkshake flavors with a proposal to have a significant protein addition. In one of them, the version with the cookie, the cricket was used as an attraction to arouse public interest and boost sales.

And believe me, if you may have found the taste of cookie and cricket milkshake to be absurd, the other of the protein line should make you even more awkward. It is a flavor with vanilla ice cream and barbecue sauce, maple syrup and spices, served with two dehydrated meat sausages. If not, basically Way Back Burges intends to portray “the essence of dehydrated meat in the form of milkshake, ” as posted on its website.

Culinary insects and the richness of crickets

Although it seems strange and "exotic oriental cooking", the truth is that preparations with ingredients derived from insects are not new and the number of adherents is increasing more and more. In fast foods and other food companies, for example, it is common to use a reddish dye extracted from females of an insect known as mealybug.

In the case of crickets, the most attractive property is their protein richness. This is even one of the arguments used by Way Back Burgers for the use of “cricket flour” in the milkshake. On its website, the company curiously states that for every 100 grams of “cricket meat”, there is almost 50 grams of protein, while for the same amount of steak, that amount can fall by half.

Crickets have higher protein level than red meat steak

Ownership of cricket, which many consumers have conquered, has led to the emergence of some specialized protein extraction industries. These companies produce the cricket powder or flour that Way Back Burgers uses for its new milkshake flavor.