Gunther Gelato

Gunther – Gelateria
July 13, 2023
Rome, Italy

The Hot Spot’s reunion started with a blaze, with the heat rising to scorching levels here in Rome – a city steeped in the most glorious history Gelato-wise and otherwise too!

Mariam, Ali and Myself together again with memories of the nights nearly 25 years ago, wresting with the wooden bucket, the rock salt, the crushed ice and the muscle fatigue in producing what was to start an ice cream revolution in Pakistan.

As we were settling in for a lovely pastry-based brunch, my eyes wandered across the street to a store that rang a bell.  “Gunther” was one of the spots we had marked on our list of the finest Ice Cream in Rome, which the world was aware of.  My curiosity got the better of me, and along with my niece, who wasn’t around when we started The Hot Spot all those moons ago, we strolled off for an early tester so that we could return a little later and sample as many of the stunningly presented arrays of Gelato, Sorbets and Granitas on display.

I informed the cheerful young man working at the shop and another man visible in an adjacent room making fresh batches of a mix for the batch freezer.  As I asked Tiziano about the ice cream’s intricacies, methodology, and production, he was kind enough to share some precious information about their Gelato and the ethos behind the enterprise.  Firstly.  There is nothing artificial used at all.  Indeed, Italy has the finest production of Pre-mix powders available at Coffee Etc here in Pakistan as well.  Some of these pre-mix powders are incredibly good as we have been fortunate enough to have Mr Askari of Coffee’s Etc demonstrate for us.  However much as we are big fans of the pre-mix powder Gelato used by many of the top restaurants in Pakistan.  We find using pre-mix powders and referring to ourselves as All Natural Ice Cream (and soon to be Gelato). 

Numerous excellent outlets prefer to use Pre-mix ready-made powders as the basis of their ice cream and cannot go wrong as the Pre-Mix Powder does all the work and is always of the same consistency and taste.  Grudgingly, we declined to use the Pre-Mix powders and did our best with Natural Products. We chose to stick with our methods rather than go for the brilliant imported Pre-Mixes made to perfection in Milan, the world’s Gelato, AKA ice cream capital.

Tiziano was not at all insecure about answering numerous questions I had about how their Gelato is prepared.  He knew we were there to learn and appreciate, and he was very forthcoming with all sorts of interesting facts about the Gelato and even how they tackle the recently introduced Vegan flavours.

Sampling the Gelato sent me into spasms of ecstasy, and I asked the cheerful and charming Tiziano to suggest flavours to try (shamelessly).  The first we sampled was described as the finest chocolate in the city.  After experiencing it, there could be little doubt that this was chocolate at its most intoxicating.  The Gelato melted in the mouth like butter, sending the taste receptors tingling joyfully.  The Stratiacella was equally brilliant.  It was also easy to understand why Pistachio Gelato is one of the most beloved, along with Peach, Lemon, Hazelnut, Walnut, cherry, and crema.  Various coffee flavours were in the mix as well.  We spend a good while stuffing our faces with incredibly sumptuous, creamy, fresh Gelato. 

We would be pretty fortunate if the rest of our Must Try List shops were half as divine as what was being served here at Gunther.

In the evening, we visited the Aurelia Gelateria, which also had fascinating flavours.  The lemon was much more sorbet than ice cream but was cooling and refreshing.  The vanilla I had was incredibly smooth and creamy but not quite in the class of Gunther’s version, which was considerably more flavoursome.

We have another dozen or more Gelateria to visit, glean information, and decide which deserves the royal crown as the Best Gelato in Rome.  Gunther was an excellent start and will be tough to match or defeat, yet there are a dozen contenders we are aiming to visit in the next few days.  Stay tuned for further reports from Rome, The Ice Cream capital of the world. 

Next on our list is one of Rome’s most well-known Gelateria outlets Giolitti, virtually a Roman institution.  More on the Roman Gelato trail is coming up.  Stay tuned, folks.