First, let's just get this out there. If you think grocery store packaged gelato is not "real gelato", then guess what? Yeah, I basically agree. I've had some *incredible* gelato in my days, but it has always been from a shop, prepared only a few hours at most before. The grocery store stuff generally is no different than any other packaged ice cream. The serving temperature obviously has to be the same as standard freezer temp, like all other household frozen goods, so that softer texture due to higher serving temp distinguishing characteristic isn't there. However, if a company brands itself as "gelato" rather than ice cream, they likely really do use lower milkfat.
I eat a ton of frozen dairy treats, obviously, but I don't generally prefer one style over another. Some occasions (like, you know, warm fruit crisp) call for hard plain ice cream, others (like, a 80* sunny day) call for soft serve, in a cone, with rainbow sprinkles, and others (rainy days!) demand froyo loaded with toppings. I don't have any "category" of time I would gravitate towards gelato, besides, well, if I'm somewhere like Sydney, and happen to be near a lovely gelato shop (hi, Messina! Hello Anita!).
In the freezer aisle of a grocery store however, I'm most likely to just pick ice cream, not gelato (although I do remember getting drawn in when Talenti first came out in the US, the clear packaging made such an impact!). This past summer, while staying in New Hampshire to escape from city life during COVID, I explored the freezer aisle quite a bit. And there I discovered many east coast brands, including Gelato Fiasco, made in Maine.
"We searched and sought, but we could not find the perfect gelato. The centuries-old secrets of the Italian masters had been lost! Knowing that gelato should be magnificent, we set out to rediscover those Old World techniques and create a new standard of quality and taste with our own inspiration, ingredients, and creativity."
They use local dairy, natural cane sugar not HFCS, real fruits & nuts, pistachios only from Sicily, vanilla only from Madagascar, etc, etc. I was drawn in by the incredible flavor range - I wanted to try nearly every single one. They claim to have made 1,500 flavors, although many of those were available only at their shops, not by the pint in stores. Even so, the lineup at my local grocery store was impressive enough. They had many creative flavors, but the ones that really called out were Nutterfluffer (yup, their play on the very popular fluffernutter sando, salty peanut butter gelato base, marshmallow fluff swirls, pieces of pound cake!), the Sunken Treasure (brown butter gelato, salty pretzels, chocolate dipped bourbon butter orbs, fudge swirl), and, ok, several others.
But I started with just one. Sadly, it wasn't as impressive as it seemed it should be, and after discovering other brands that I liked more, I didn't try another. I would still, if it were to just show up somewhere I was, but I wouldn't seek it out.
"Remember blueberry crisp with a scoop on top? Our version has blueberries, crunchy oat streusel, and vanilla gelato. Wow."
I started with one that was featured in the Bon Appetit magazine as one of the editors’ favorite artisanal ice cream flavors, which seemed like a great place to start. Plus, I *loved* the sound of Wild Maine Blueberry Crisp! I do love fruit crisp. And my fruit crisp is *always* served a la mode (and warm, unless its for breakfast, then it is cold, and with whipped cream). This had so much promise.
Sadly, it was kinda eh for me.
The base vanilla ice cream was fine, but it was the kind that freezes *hard* and takes considerable time to soften. The blueberry component was very sweet blueberry goo in some pockets, but not really distributed all that well, and not really as blueberry forward as I'd like - it was mostly sweet.
But the real issue was the streusel, the part I was most looking forward to even! It wasn't chunks of streusel, it wasn't "crunchy", and it wasn't identifiable as oat ... it was just grit throughout. Much like many of Ben & Jerry's flavors that I otherwise love, the grit texture just didn't work for me.
I didn't hate this pint, and I did make ice cream sundaes with it, and use it on top of fruit crisp, but, I certainly didn't enjoy it just as it was, and I wouldn't get another pint.
But I started with just one. Sadly, it wasn't as impressive as it seemed it should be, and after discovering other brands that I liked more, I didn't try another. I would still, if it were to just show up somewhere I was, but I wouldn't seek it out.
 |
| Wild Maine Blueberry Crisp Vanilla gelato / crunchy oat streusel / maine blueberries. |
I started with one that was featured in the Bon Appetit magazine as one of the editors’ favorite artisanal ice cream flavors, which seemed like a great place to start. Plus, I *loved* the sound of Wild Maine Blueberry Crisp! I do love fruit crisp. And my fruit crisp is *always* served a la mode (and warm, unless its for breakfast, then it is cold, and with whipped cream). This had so much promise.
Sadly, it was kinda eh for me.
The base vanilla ice cream was fine, but it was the kind that freezes *hard* and takes considerable time to soften. The blueberry component was very sweet blueberry goo in some pockets, but not really distributed all that well, and not really as blueberry forward as I'd like - it was mostly sweet.
But the real issue was the streusel, the part I was most looking forward to even! It wasn't chunks of streusel, it wasn't "crunchy", and it wasn't identifiable as oat ... it was just grit throughout. Much like many of Ben & Jerry's flavors that I otherwise love, the grit texture just didn't work for me.
I didn't hate this pint, and I did make ice cream sundaes with it, and use it on top of fruit crisp, but, I certainly didn't enjoy it just as it was, and I wouldn't get another pint.
**+.
0 comments:
Post a Comment