My friend brought me to have a taste of Haato, a Japanese Gelato place. My current favourite flavours – well, actually, the two times I’ve been there, I’ve ordered the same thing – are banana chocolate and durian.
They make a pretty good combination and the durian doesn’t overwhelm the chocolate banana, as long as you start with the latter first.
I especially liked the chocolate banana because I find that many confections with banana in them have this awful fake fresh-out-of-the-factory banana flavour. Not this one
I have to applaud them for good ice cream refrigeration control, not like at Haagen Dazs, where I’ve boycotted because of their soft ice cream.
There are many reasons why ice cream/gelato needs to be hard when scooped. And anyone working in an ice cream parlour must expect to grow one more muscular arm shaping ice cream to fit into little cones and tubs.
- Ice cream frozen at the right temperature holds it’s shape better and creates volume. This gives consumers the illusion that they are getting more than the chap getting softer ice cream although both scoops may weigh exactly the same.
- Ice cream that is not frozen at the correct temperature tastes sweeter than the correctly frozen equivalent. This makes the product more sickly sweet and turns away the customer, unless you like sickly sweet things.
- If ice cream is not stored at the right temperature, by the time the customer gets it, it’ll be ice cream soup. And that’s not ice cream.
- Ice cream not stored at the right temperature when brought home refreezes with icicles in the ice cream, turning something smooth and creamy into crunchy, rough ice cream.
So I brought a Haato tub home for parents to try. Boy was I excited. $24 worth of fresh gelato of the same two flavours, I’ve come to enjoy.
Haato keeps the ice cream in this styrofoam package which really keeps the ice cream cool. A half hour ride in the car and only the top bit was slightly melted. Nice.
But really, I think Haato needs to find staff with stronger arms. Because these were not the gaps I wanted to see in a $24 tub.
Apart from the “did I get what I paid for?” question that popped into my head, I was disappointed because I expect my ice cream of this grade to be pressed firmly into the container. These gaps do not make scooping great balls of ice cream easy.
Well, half a tub is gone. This means I’ve eaten way too much of the durian/chocolate banana combination. I need new flavours to captivate my heart.