Gelato is the way Italians (and a growing number of Americans) do ice cream. It's simple to make, and we make it here most every day. You need milk, sugar, and an emulsifier--that's what makes it smooth and binds the milk molecules to the ice molecules to the sugar molecules for a creamy, delicious texture. We use a mix of naturally derived ingredients from Italy for our emulsifier, including skim milk powder, dextrose, soy lecithin, and guar gum. You can make gelato at home, though, using just eggs!

Because gelato is made from whole milk, it's naturally about 3.5% butterfat. You can add a little cream, which we do for some of our flavors, which causes the butterfat content to range upward to as much as 5-6%. The process of making (or "dashing") gelato adds about 20-30% air, by volume, to the product, which makes it taste a bit lighter and smoother.

Ice cream, by comparison, is aptly named--it contains a lot of cream. When you buy ice cream from the supermarket, you can be sure it contains enough cream to boost the butterfat content to at least 10%. Any less, and it must be legally called something else--lowfat ice cream, ice milk, soft serve, frozen dairy dessert, and so on. Typical ice creams are just that--exactly 10% butterfat. You can make that at home using about three parts whole milk (3.5%) for every one part heavy whipping cream (39%).

A typical supermarket ice cream is also more than half air! You can feel it for yourself when you pick up a carton--compared to adding 20-30% air, as we do when making gelato, ice creams often have 90-120% air added. This gives ice creams their light, fluffy texture (although some brands take it too far, ending up tasting like marshmallows).

More "premium" ice creams differentiate themselves in two ways. They add more cream, for a richer texture and wonderful melt-in-your-mouth feel, and they add less air. At the nicer ice cream making restaurants, you might find butterfat ranging from 11% to a whopping 17%, and "overrun" (the amount of air added) ranging from 90% down as low as 40%. The more fat, or the less air, the more "premium" the ice cream--and the price tag.

Our ice cream has about 30-40% overrun and about 13-14% butterfat. Any more cream and we feel it loses its flavor, and begins to taste heavy; we've found what we think is the perfect balance of air and cream to give the richest, most fantastic texture without obscuring the flavor. For that's what butterfat does: it gives the ice cream its distinctive (and present in varying quantities depending on the maker) creamy, blanketing feel on your tongue. By the same mechanism, though, it blocks your sense of taste, eliminating flavor and obscuring all the great work put into making it.

So there are three main differences between ice cream in general and a typical gelato: Ice cream has (much) more fat, as much as two to five times as much. This adds a creamy, coating texture, but inhibits flavor, making ice cream excellently suited to mild, sweet flavors like vanilla, caramel, maple, and candy flavors like cookies and cakes. Ice cream has more air, giving it a light, pleasant texture and feel, but again reducing the vividness of the flavor. Finally, gelato is served warmer. We serve all of our flavors at 3 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to a typical ice cream temperature of -5 to -8 degrees.

This small difference has three effects: firstly, it's softer and won't give you brainfreeze. Secondly, our product has a shorter life span, meaning we need to serve our ice creams within about four to six days after making them, and our gelatos within the first two or three (any longer, and the texture begins to deteriorate, which is why gelatos made offsite and delivered by truck taste gooey). Gelato is never intended to last more than three days, and ours will never need to. Lastly, severe cold stifles your taste buds, turning them partially off. This is another reason why gelato is more well suited to intricate, intense flavors like cappucino and gianduia--at a warmer tempurature, the delicate flavors come together like a gourmet dessert (because it is!).

So to sum up, gelato is made and served with less air, with less fat, and at a higher temperature than typical American ice cream. Our ice cream, though, is made in a very premium way--it is made relatively warmer and denser, as ice cream goes, giving it the densest, richest ice cream flavor and texture you're ever likely to experience! We choose ice cream and gelato flavors based on each one's strengths, matching each flavor to its best medium. Enjoy!

-Nick