The solstice of last June 21 gave the official green light to summer 2018. A summer which, however, from a weather point of view has not yet shown itself fully. However, it is clear that the ice cream season, the most intense, the truest, the most beautiful, has already begun.

A walk by the sea, an outing in the most fascinating places from a tourist point of view, a tour of the avenues of our Italian villages and, almost invariably, ice cream: the Italian summer is this too. For young people who hope to find their first love, for parents who accompany their children and for the wisest who find refreshment on summer nights.

We parted ways with the winter trends, we find ourselves with the tastes of summer. Many of these, moreover, have already been presented during the Gambero Rosso 2018 Gelaterie d’Italia Guide event, created with Orion, and held at Sigep in Rimini. Gentlemen, there is a predominant color: green.

Green not only because it is the characterizing color of nature, the countryside and the quality of the 0 km ingredients, but also because it is the chromatic effect of the most tasted flavours.

Some clarification is a must to avoid repetition in the course of the post.

First: extravagance is the order of the day. Globalization has also opened up the diffusion of ingredients and products that are not exactly classic. Above all: the pork flavor comes from the USA, broad beans and pecorino from Italy.

Second: registering a brand is becoming customary to avoid duplication and imitation of more innovative tastes. Rosemary Baby, with a raspberry and rosemary flavour, and Venere Nera, with a blackberry flavored with lavender, are the most striking examples.

Third and last: the strongest trend. A vegan, healthy, sustainable ice cream with aromatic herbs, spices and essential oils: the line is now drawn. Ginger, cinnamon, vegetable ingredients to fully replace animal ones, rose essential oil syrup: will they be able to undermine hazelnut and chocolate?

It’s becoming a classic

It is now becoming a classic. Or it already has. Pistachio is one of the most requested flavors in 2018. It is among the most chosen flavours, it has rightfully entered the artisan gelato tradition, it is a simple recipe, it is good for a number of reasons.

Where is the news? In pairings: from the USA they suggest it with lime, from South America with ricotta, from Europe they combine it with fruit and orange, in Italy they increasingly link it to wines as in the case of passito. Speaking of orange, a small digression on the pistachio theme: watch out for the kumquat, also commonly known as the Chinese mandarin.

But green is not only pistachio: we also find it in mint paired with wild fennel, in green apple with cinnamon essential oil (always arriving from America) and, if you like, in olive oil that even goes well with basil better if red.

Alcohol goes well with ice cream

Until now we were used to seeing it in combination: a drink or a cocktail together with ice cream for an aperitif. Today we also find it as an ingredient: beer and vermouth and ginger are the most suitable, but also Lagavulin whiskey and Chardonnay apples and pistachio. However, keep an eye on the production techniques: alcohol complicates the creaming of the ice cream, it is necessary to reduce the sugar.

Basically less sugar and more panache.

Super food also affects “ice cream”

From the Accademia dei Maestri Gelatieri comes the solution that combines taste and greeting: moringa, like the homonymous plant that grows in India at the foot of the Himalayas, a super food appreciated for its beneficial virtues with 9 essential amino acids, 27 vitamins, 46 different antioxidants and many mineral salts.

New techniques for sustainability: nitrogen arrives

There is a new technique that aims to establish itself: it is the nitrogen one: cream based on the desired flavor wrapped in a cloud of nitrogen. Electricity consumption is reduced and water consumption is completely eliminated. Objective: to create a quality product, easily customizable, and save money.

With the halo-halo you make it big on social networks and in taste

It is certainly the king of social media, the most photographed, the most instagrammable, perhaps it is also one of the strangest: it is the halo-halo, it comes from the dessert tradition of the Philippines.

It is not a classic ice cream made with cream, milk, sugar and fruit. Red and white beans, condensed milk, mixed with various fruits according to taste and recipes (even online you can find hundreds of them), necessary coconut, sometimes purple potatoes (they help to give that very purplish colour, with the perfect nuance, for the approval of fans on social networks). Halo-Halo means mix-mix. Or mix everything for the benefit of a like.

Waiting for Godot
Beckett built one of the most famous plays of the mid-twentieth century on it. Mr. Godot kept waiting, almost nothing is known about him, we only know that “he won’t come today, he will come tomorrow”. Black ice cream is to gastronomy what Godot is to the theatre: will it be the right year for his definitive affirmation? Taken from the ash obtained from the coconut and the consequent extraction of activated carbon, we have been talking about black ice cream for some years now. In a world, however, still tied to emotions, still tied to colors.

Quality, training and innovation are still the keywords for summer 2018 ice cream. Refinement, variety, territoriality and proximity: many different ways to enrich your Facebook jewellery.