Gelatiamo

Gelatiamo is a lovely little cafe, offering a great range of gelato with about half of the flavours being sorbets (yay!). There’s plenty of seating inside, so we decided to dine in, and were served our choices in cute sundae glasses with long spoons. Listed as one of the top 10 gelaterias in Sydney, this was my first visit, so I picked a flavour that can be hard to find – mandarin sorbet ($4.90 for a single scoop). I was surprised by how huge the serving was (dine in is highly recommended) – I would have easily thought of this as a double serve, but Dad’s double was piled up even higher! I had a quick taste of his hazelnut and pistachio choices – both were creamy and nutty, with perfectly smooth textures that didn’t have ‘bits’ in them. I then got stuck into my sorbet. Don’t order this flavour if you like sweet sorbets – the citrus flavour in this sorbet is really intense, but also quite bitter. I found this really refreshing, and the flavor screamed MANDARIN! I could imagine this being a great palate cleanser after a heavy meal – fresh, sharp and delicious.

Gelatiamo, 362 Pacific Highway, Lindfield, NSW, http://www.gelatiamo.com.au/

Scroll

#icecreamthurs AND #sweetweek – oh yeah! Oh Scroll. You lovely thing. From the fun menu, we tried the ‘Nutter Butter’ ($9 or $8 with Facebook check-in), with peanut butter, Nutella, Tim Tams, served with wafers and crushed peanuts. I love watching the Scroll ninjas spreading the liquid icecream ingredients on the chilled teppan, then delicately scraping them into long rolls, that are then stood up in the cup. You have to be careful when walking with your toppings, which are precariously balanced on top of the huge serve of icecream – we shared two between three people and to be honest, it was still a lot to eat! With fresh ingredients, Scroll’s icecream is one of the creamiest I’ve tried, and with such a lovely peanut butter flavour this icecream is really up there with the best. I like the textural contrasts brought by the nuts, the wafer, the Tim Tam segments and – oh my – the adorably cute Minion biscuit! The whole combination is incredibly moreish and the flavours stay strong throughout. The Nutella isn’t overdone, so it complements, rather than overpowers, the other flavours. Oh yes, I’ll be ordering this one, again and again and again…

Scroll, 35 York Street, Adelaide SA, http://www.scrollicecream.com.au/

Pepper Lunch

I dined as a guest of Pepper Lunch; all opinions are my own . As part of the generous meal at their launch, Pepper Lunch also included a complimentary dessert soft-serve – hello #icecreamthurs! I am a huge fan of soft serve, and I feel like the benchmark in Canberra has been set pretty high, with this delight from XO in Narrabundah. I was very excited to see that Pepper Lunch offers a range of Asian-inspired flavour toppings for their vanilla soft serve, including black sesame (unavailable at the launch) and green tea (matcha), along with caramel and chocolate options. Both my friend and I picked the matcha, which came in a huge cup and had green tea syrup and powder swirled throughout. The icecream itself was really creamy, and I loved that it was already starting to melt slightly as I ate it. I was a bit surprised at how subtle the matcha flavour was – usually matcha has quite a strong, bitter taste that you either love or hate, but this version seemed to be missing that bold flavour, which can be great or disappointing, depending on your view of matcha. Personally, I would have liked a stronger flavour, but I really enjoyed the vanilla soft serve.

Pepper Lunch, 88-96 Bunda Street (next to Oliver Brown) Canberra, http://www.pepperlunch.com.au/

7 Apples Gelato

Ok, if you’ve seen it, you know that the 7 Apples Gelato store in Emporium isn’t just cute, it’s the most freaking adorable icecreamery ever. A little icecream cart with a bicycle attached, this tiny stall sucked me in with free samples and sorbet options. Who could resist? Offering a limited range (around 8 flavours – their main store is in St Kilda) on their cute menu board, I opted for a single scoop of the mango sorbet ($5.50), which was served in a reasonably sized up and had a creamy, pale colour. The mango flavour was nice – authentic, but not as strong as other mango sorbets I’ve tried in Melbourne – and there was a good amount of sweetness to it. The texture was again around the mid-range of quality – not the creamiest I’ve ever tried, but not overly icy either, so definitely in the solidly ‘good’ category. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to order this flavour again (nice was it was), given the range of flavours they offer, but I would recommend stopping by, if only to marvel at the set up, uniform and, of course, to enjoy the free samples!

7 Apples Gelato, Emporium Melbourne (Level 3), 287 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC, http://www.7applesgelato.com/

White Rabbit

This was a mostly icecream dessert, so here it goes for #icecreamthurs this week! Let me say straight up, White Rabbit has beautiful cocktails and delicious desserts. This is a great place for a special treat, and I started by ordering The Dodo ($20), with gin, orange bitters, lemon and blueberry syrup hiding under a thick layer of passionfruit foam. Yum, yum, yum. This was utterly delightful – a nice balance between sweet and tart, I will be back for this drink. For dessert, I ordered the fried brioche sandwich ($16), with peanut butter gelato and raspberry swirl sorbet. When the dish came out, it was clear that the brioche was more soldiers than sandwich, topped with a nut crumble (be warned those with allergies, this is not noted on the menu) and edible flowers. The brioche was very rich, but somehow dipping it into the raspberry jam and melting icecream helped. The peanut butter flavour was great in the super creamy icecream, and although it took a while to find the raspberry swirl, when I did it added a great tartness to the otherwise very sweet dish. This is one for the sweet-tooths, to be sure.

White Rabbit Cocktail Room, 65 Northbourne Avenue, Canberra ACT,

Gelateria Primavera

It has been a while since I was last at Gelateria Primavera (seriously, where does the time go?) but on a recent visit to Melbourne, I made a point of stopping by to try some of their excellent flavours. I usually go for the more unusual options, and this time that meant trying the peach and basil sorbet. Peach and basil? I hear you ask. Yep – these are definitely two things I would not have considered throwing together, yet there they were, in a cup of sorbet. The first thing I love about Gelateria Primavera (apart from their extended opening hours) is the great texture of their gelato/sorbets. In the case of this sorbet, it was so lovely and creamy I wouldn’t have known it was dairy free if the sign hadn’t said so. Down to the flavour – I must admit, these guys know how to balance flavours. I was expecting a much sweeter taste with jarring notes of basil, but neither the peach nor the basil dominates, both blended into a harmonious whole. The peach is subtle and rich, while the basil adds an unusual spritz without stealing the show. Definitely unusual, definitely delicious.

Gelateria Primavera, 157 Spring Street, Melbourne VIC, http://www.springstreetgrocer.com.au/

Ben & Jerry’s

Tuesday was a very special, magical day. Ben & Jerry’s, those purveyors of fun-named icecreams, held a Free Cone Day. That’s right. Not only was the icecream free, it was also free in unlimited quantities to all – as in, you could queue up as many times as you liked to try their flavours. I’m told a father and his young son held the record for 11 rounds. I was only brave enough for two – first up was the newest flavour on the block, The Tonight Dough. This was an utterly indulgent serve, with chocolate and caramel icecream, chocolate cookie swirls, and chunks of chocolate chip and peanut butter cookie doughs. Seriously – huge chunks of dough. The chocolate icecream was particularly good – luscious and creamy, and very, very chocolatey. The cone was also quite tasty too. Round two was the Hazed and Confused – chocolate and hazelnut icecream with fudge chips and a hazelnut swirl (basically like Nutella). I really liked the hazelnut flavour, although I found the swirls a bit rich (perhaps inevitable after eating two icecreams in the space of 30 mins). The Tonight Dough is definitely my pick of the menu. Thanks for the freebies Ben & Jerry’s!

Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop, Hoyts Westfield Woden, Bradley Street, Phillip ACT  http://www.benandjerry.com.au/scoop-shops