2016 was a good year for the humble ice cream which underwent a tasty makeover. The basic formula of mixing milk, cream and sugar and freezing it has been modernised to more than just those swirls of sweetness you get at the seaside and in ice cream parlours.
There are now hundreds of flavours of ice cream available in retailers and in cafés across South Africa.
Sorbets and frozen yoghurt have also become popular options to ice-cream. Unlike ice-cream, sorbet is usually a mix of fruit juices, syrup and water and contains no dairy and frozen yoghurt can contain a myriad of additives and calories when the yoghurt mix is perfected.
So with it being high summer, which one do you go for? Ice-cream, sorbert or fro-yo? We break it down for you.
Ice Cream
It’s hard to improve on a classic, but in South Africa the ice cream revolution has only just started.
Euromonitor estimates that the sale of ice cream tubs in South Africa is expected to rise from 7.6 million in 2011 to 7.8 million in 2019. Soft serve ice cream was replaced by other artisanal desserts including Italian gelatos which are creamy and rich with sprinklings of nuts and fruit. At the end of 2016 a new world of ice cream flavours burst onto the scene when Baskin Robbins opened its first ice cream parlour in Cape Town on 9 December 2016. The American ice cream chain founded in 1945, brings to South Africa a library of thousands of flavours and in it’s stores you’re guaranteed to find 31 flavours at any given time. The sweet ice creams like cotton candy wonderland are in vibrant colours of pink and purple and even when choosing a flavour such as peanut butter n choc you still taste the milky goodness you’d expect in this dairy dessert.
Sorbet
Sorbet is often considered the dull step-child at the ice cream bar because it lacks the creamy dairy flavour. The other misconception is that sorbet is a healthier option than ice cream but certain flavours and variants can contain the same amount of calories as dairy ice cream.
At the N2Ice Cream Lab in the V&A Waterfront they have taken sorbets to a whole new tasty level thanks to the use of nitrogen. Owner and chief scientist Maija Groenewald says: “You can use any base flavour and blast the mix with nitrogen to create new sorbets and ice creams.”
The tastiest sorbets are the ones that have a fruit or alcohol base, including the mango flavour and the unique Jack Black ice cream which is a black ice cream with a punchy Jack Daniels flavour. It’s a pure sorbet with no stabilisers, additives or emulsifiers.
Frozen Yoghurt
Retailers like Marcels and Myog in Cape Town have put frozen yoghurt on the map and any dessert option. All of the frozen yoghurts have a dairy base and of course the yoghurt is flavoured sweet and fruity or both. 2016 was not a particularly stellar year for this dessert and there has been no significant fro-yo flavour innovations. With the ice cream makers becoming a staple in the kitchen, one of the best options is to make your own frozen yoghurt at home, using yoghurt, cream and sweetener as well as any flavour additive of your choice.