Did You Know There's Fake Gelato? Here's How You Can Tell The Difference
And what's the difference between ice cream and gelato?
By Tamara Jayne — 31 Jan 2024, 01:08 PM
Yes, there's such a thing as fake gelato
Gelato is a popular frozen sweet treat that comes from Italy, but not all are the same.
TikTok user @jasminebellepak shared a video of an Italian tour guide explaining how to choose a good gelato and discern when it's fake.
Based on her advice, here's what you should look out for:
1. A good gelateria will usually offer only a few flavours
If the gelateria offers 150 flavours, for example, it is likely that the gelatos aren't homemade and are probably industrially produced.
2. Avoid heaping mounds of gelato
You may have spotted shops with gelato heaped in huge mounds to impress customers.
The tour guide explains that what they do to achieve this effect is "whisk the gelato up" so they grow with the air. By evening, these mounds will have deflated, so you're essentially "paying for air".
Instead, look out for shops whose gelato is in a flat layer in the display containers. Some shops with good gelato will even have lids on their containers, so you won't be able to see the dessert.
3. Look at the colours of these three gelato flavours: banana, pistachio, and mint
Based on her advice, banana-flavoured gelato should be off-white, not yellow, "as we are not eating the peel".
Pistachio should be an earthily dull colour, not turtle green.
Meanwhile, "mint is made with extract of mint, which makes it a very light coloured green, not glowing in the dark".
4. Spot if there are any fake gelatos among the selection, even if it's just one
If you enter a gelateria and find that only one flavour is fake (for example, if it's blue in colour), the likelihood is that all the other flavours will be similar because "they're not going to make one fake and the others real".
What is the difference between gelato and ice cream?
The word "gelato" is essentially "ice cream" in Italian. However, they do have a number of differences.
Firstly, a good ice cream is made with cream while gelato is made with milk.
"That's why gelato melts faster than an ice cream," she explains in the video.
Gelato texture is usually smooth and dense because its churned at a lower speed, resulting in less air. Ice cream, on the other hand, is lighter and creamier due to the higher air content resulting from faster churning.
Gelato also usually uses less fat content compared to ice cream and is often served at a higher temperature, which gives it a more intense flavour. If ice cream has higher fat content, it can also produce a rich flavour.
So, essentially, the differences between gelato and ice cream boils down to their liquid components, churn rates, fat content, and temperatures.
