I Like My Gelato Like a Trophy Wife Likes Her Men: Thick and Rich

So far in my Florence travel recaps, I’ve shown you some slightly disappointing gelato from Festival del Gelato and some far better gelato and granita from Carabe.

Surely, though, you must have known the gelato adventures didn’t stop there. Now, for a bit of a disclaimer, the following doesn’t cover every gelato adventure I had – just a few top picks. For example, I decided not to take pictures of every pistachio gelato I tried in my quest for The Ultimate Pistachio Gelato, as there’s a limit to how interesting one can make endless shots of pale-green-brown substances look. (Mmmm, pale-green-brown substances.) But just so you know, my personal favourite pistachio gelato was from Il Gelato Vivoli.

Without further ado, here are a few worthy-of-acclamation gelati that I did photograph. (What, you don’t clap with glee when you find delicious eats?)

Grom

Grom seems to have a store in New York, beloved American readers! However, I think I prefer to keep my gelato as a strictly-Italian experience.

As I arrived in Florence at the end of March and left in early April, I was lucky enough to catch Grom’s March and April flavours. Each month, Grom changes its line-up of gelato flavours, as well as offering a “Flavour of the Month” for those who like novelty.

Of course, being a newbie to Florence and gelato, it was all a novelty for me. Nonetheless, I did try Grom’s March Flavour of the Month, the Te Verde e Cioccolato Bianco.

I didn’t lie to you, I promise. The one on the left is green tea with white chocolate, not pistachio.

I very much enjoyed both these flavours. The green tea was smooth and sweet with a subtle bitterness peeking through at the end. To be honest, I didn’t think the white chocolate added much to the experience (freezing chocolate limits the amount of flavour it can convey – there’s a reason why chocolate should be stored and eaten at 16-18 degrees Celsius!), but the green tea gelato itself was good enough to hold the combination aloft in awesomeness.

For my second flavour I chose Grom’s Pera Frutta, a sorbet. I wanted to compare it to Carabe’s pear gelato, as that had been a pleasant shock to the system.

Slightly darker in colour than Carabe’s pear gelato… but what of the taste?

I’m sorry, Carabe, but Grom’s pear sorbet beat you at your own game. I don’t take back what I said about Carabe’s pear gelato tasting of the essence of pear, but somehow Grom’s was even more to-the-pear-point. It even had that slightly bitter taste one finds in the skin or near the core of a beurre bosc pear (does anyone else eat the cores of apples and pears? *waves hand in air*). Wonderful.

When April came, I returned to Grom, and found myself ordering a flavour I never would have thought to before these travels commenced. See, travelling changes a person!

Mmm, mixed-dirt-cement flavour gelato. Best ever. Or, you know, liquirizia.

I threw caution to the wind here and, on the back of my pleasurable licorice macaron experience, ordered Grom’s licorice gelato.

Readers, it was amazing. However, this amazingness was partly due to the fact that it didn’t taste anything like how I expect licorice to taste. There was something slightly herbal, but not, something slightly dark (can dark be a flavour? I think so), but not, and it had these rich sweet waves of fleeting and shifting flavour notes that kept me coming back for more.

There was, of course, the other flavour too, but it made me put on my sad face.

Grom Fragola Strawberry Gelato, Florence.

Fragola - strawberry sorbet. This tasted like strawberry-flavoured lollies, not like real strawberries. Such a contrast with the pear sorbet, but you live and you learn, right? And if you like super-sweet strawberry candy, I’m sure this would be much-loved.

Lastly, I’ll show you a couple of flavours from another highly-recommended gelateria, Il Gelato Vivoli (the place of the best pistachio).

Il Gelato Vivoli

Ah well, at least he wasn’t smoking near the gelato.

In retrospect, I think one of the flavours I tried here was actually a semifreddo, not a gelato. It was very soft and whipped-cream-like in texture, and was in a different part of the cabinet to the other gelati. No worries, though, it was brilliant!

On the left: Mela. On the right: Meringa.

Let’s get the overshadowed flavour out of the way first, yes? Mela was a green apple sorbet, and had a delightful sweet-sour zinginess that at times tended towards lolly-sweetness but was saved by flecks of real apple skin. Nice.

BUT.

The Meringa, which was a light-and-fluffy sweet cream ice cream with chunks of meringue and dark chocolate, was beautiful. It was like the best [fruitless] pavlova in ice cream form, with each dissolving-crunch of meringue, each airy wisp of sweet gelato, each speckle of dark chocolate (chocolate worked here, surprisingly) contributing to the fun.

Half-eaten. Half-melted. Still divine.

Now what was that I was saying about needing an ice-cream maker?

23 thoughts on “I Like My Gelato Like a Trophy Wife Likes Her Men: Thick and Rich”

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE POST IN THE HISTORY OF FAVOURITE POSTSSSSSSS.

ALSOOO I EAT APPLE/PEAR CORES/SEEDS TOOOOOOO. it originated from laziness…what?! walking all the way to the bin!?? but look! i have my own garbage disposal unit right here…it is called my stomach! in it goes! hoorah!

Grom

Il Gelato Vivoli

23 thoughts on “I Like My Gelato Like a Trophy Wife Likes Her Men: Thick and Rich”

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