You say Gelato, I say Gelata

Posted by The Editorial Desk / Thursday, August 26th, 2010

Ice cream obsession must be in the genes.  My father raised me to cherish the dessert as both sacred and familiar.  When I was younger, I dreamed of the day that I could be an adult so I could use my grown-up salary to stock my freezer with every flavor imaginable.  (Thank goodness my “adult” budget doesn’t allow me to slide down this sure-fire path to obesity.)  A friend recently pointed out how much I resembled my brother, not by our matching red hair or muppet-like expressions, but by the fact that I showed up at the dinner party with pints of Ben & Jerry’s – an offering only a Daugherty would consider necessary to complete the dessert table.

Then one day, I ate some gelato.

If ice cream were Jesus incarnated into food, gelato would be the soul of ice cream – pure divinity.  In more technical terms, gelato is different from its counterpart in that it has less fat and no air added in the making, which results in a denser and creamier product.  I’d elaborate, but I’m not here to tell you how the magic is made as much as where. 

For starters, there’s Pitango Gelato in Reston’s Town Center.  Pitango prides itself on using fresh and organic ingredients.  Their milk is sourced from Springwood Organic Farms of Pennsylvania – and the freshness shows in the taste, though I think the texture beeps onto the grainier side of the radar.  With a spacious lobby decorated in crisply modern style, it is a sweet location to cool down after exploring the surrounding shops.  Besides the basic Pistachio and Hazelnut, some of the more interesting flavors include a Spicy Chocolate (The chocolate noir is at first overwhelming; then the hot peppers spread over the whole palate in slow-motion.), Cantaloupe Sorbet, Cardamom and Black Tea.  I mixed the latter two flavors in my cup to create my own Chai Gelato – with a few fugitive bits of cardamom to be discovered in every other scoop. 

Then there’s Penny Chocolates & Gelato of Fairfax. The owner (whose name is Cheryl while her Dachshund claims the fame of the store’s name) learned her culinary craft in Italy and boasts authentic artisan gelato.  Her store offers all the basic flavors with a few interesting seasonal offerings to come.  Keep an eye out for Pumpkin (Alarms went off in my head when I heard this – the kind of alarms I imagine zombies hear when a team of rocket scientists appear in the vicinity – anticipation of some good brains.), Pear-Parmesan (intriguing), and Coconut Chocolate Chip.  The sorbets are packed with flavor – the Mango almost improves upon its natural namesake and the Blackberry is complex with a wine-like aftertaste on the tongue.

However, if forced to play eenie-meenie-minie-moe, my personal favorite would have to be Boccato Gelato of Clarendon.  From the cozy atmosphere to the creativity in flavors, the shop has it goin’ on.  To name a few of the eye-startlers: Pineapple-Basil, Chocolate Guinness (safe for children too), Carambola (a mixture of star fruit, kiwi, lime and fresh mint), Mojito (closer to a clean sorbet at the beginning, then becomes more like the familiar drink as it is warmed in the bouche), Blood Orange (my favorite fruit!) and Lucuma. What is Lucuma?  It’s a fruit that grows in the Andes mountains. As the owner is Peruvian, he wanted to share some of the native fruits with the rest of the world.  The nutty, sweet taste works well with the creamy base.  Stacey Viera of EveryFoodFits provides more details on the fruit and the Boccato-gelato process in an interview with the owner.  Grappling with a handful of tasting spoons in my left fist, I felt a bit in denial about the ability to limit my gluttony.  Perhaps the nearby seven-year-old boy shared my sentiment.  Very Dark Chocolate Sorbet was smeared from one ear to the other as he protested to his mother:  “It’s perfectly under control!”

-Jamel Daugherty

Tags: boccato gelato, everyfoodfits, gelato, ice cream, penny chocolates and gelato, Pitango Gelato