Gelato

“GELATO”, ice-cream in Italian, is made of milk, water and sugar combined with special flavourings and fresh fruit. In essence Gelato is creamy ice-cream without ice crystals. Compared to ordinary ice-cream sold in Estonia Gelato has a somewhat stronger taste.

Gelato is an Italian word known to signify Italian ice-cream all over the world. Gelato is derived from the Italian verb gelare, which means “to freeze”. There are two ways of making gelato. One type of gelato is made with water without dairy products. This is called sorbetto. Most fruit-flavoured gelatos have been made with water. Another type of Italian ice-cream is made using dairy products. This adds richness to the ice-cream and is mostly used for vanilla, chocolate, tiramisu and similar flavours.

Dairy-based gelato originates from Northern Italy, while the water-based Italian ice-cream, or sorbetto‘d originates from the hot areas of Southern Italy.

Dairy-based gelato is made of cow’s milk and contains 4-8% fat. This percentage also depends on the additives used (e.g. nuts increase the fat content).

High-quality gelato contains quality ingredients with milk and water. Gelato is usually made of 3-4% (fat content) milk and cream is sometimes added to improve the texture of ice-cream. Unlike ordinary ice-cream the ingredients of gelato are homogenised, which is why gelato melts more quickly than ordinary ice-cream.

Gelato is served at -15 °C. Gelato may be served at once as it is easy to handle (gelato cannot be served straight from the freezer with a temperature of -18 °C and more, as the ice-cream freezes and it cannot be divided into portions. Thus, gelato is served half-frozen). Gelato is the best when fresh, which is why we make new ice-cream every day in order to offer our clients the best gelato in Estonia.