PUNTOITALY N°1 -January - June 2012

Face to face 30 ITALIAN ARTISANAL GELATO VS SOFT ICE CREAM Please, don’t do that!!! Don’t ask your kids if they prefer a soft ice cream or an artisanal gelato, they would look at you as if you were coming from Mars. Why? Because they like both, and enjoying it is one of the best things in life. Maybe they would prefer the soft one only because it’s a kind of magic when it comes out from a stainless steel machine, it’s like to be in a sci- ence fiction drama, you express your wish and there it is!!! But, seriously, there are certain though minor differences between them. Both are sweet, refreshing and tasty but somehow the soft one seems to be warmer. On the other side with the artisanal you have a larger choice of fla- vors. By now you don’t need to choose one, just enjoy them and keep on reading if you really want to know a little bit more. SOFT It’s fantastic when you see it coming out of the machine, and it so fast that you don’t mind the queue. In 7-10 seconds the operator will be able to serve you after you have made up your mind. Vanilla, chocolate or both on the same cone? You have just grabbed it and the ice cream man is there smiling and already serving the next one. You don’t even ask yourself what is inside that machine (probably the most amazing machine in the world for kids) because now it is time to relax and enjoy it. Milk, sugar and chocolate have been mixed together and then inserted in the tank, kept refrigerated at 4°C to freeze. As soon as the operator touches the handle a pump will start mixing the ice cream and the air and pushing both into a very cold cylinder. Inside the cylinder is a beater that revolves at fast speed, and quickly prevents the formation of big ice crystal and pushes the ice cream to the cone. By Paolo Cappellini