Milk comes first.
Whole milk and fresh cream, every morning. Fior di Latte is the test: it is only milk, cream and a little sugar, so if the milk weren’t good, you would taste it right away.
How Purpo makes gelato.
Six rules, no secrets. Well, one secret, but that’s on the home page and you have to find him eight times.
Only real things go in.
Roasted pistachios, ripe strawberries, Amalfi lemons, toasted hazelnuts, dark chocolate. No artificial colors or flavors; the only color we add is a pinch of spirulina in Cielo. The only cartoon in this kitchen is Purpo.
Churn slowly.
Gelato is made by spinning. Spin fast and you whip in air, which makes more gelato out of less. Spin slowly and it stays dense, so every spoonful tastes like the thing it’s made of. We go slowly, one small batch at a time.
Keep it under a lid.
Real gelato hides. Ours waits in round steel wells called pozzetti, under a lid, away from light and warm air. No tall glossy mountains in the window, because those need extra air and stabilizers to stand up.
Serve it soft.
Gelato is served a few degrees warmer than ice cream, so it is soft, it doesn’t numb your tongue, and you taste more. That’s why it comes with a flat spatula, not a round scoop.
Eight, never nine.
Purpo has eight arms, so there are eight flavors. A new flavor means an old one retires. Fewer flavors means each one gets made properly, every day.
Pistacchio, folded with a flat spatula in its pozzetto
The honest part
Purpo changes color, so the gelato doesn’t have to.
Our pistachio is olive green with a bit of brown, because that’s what pistachios look like. Our strawberry is the pink of strawberries. Our blue comes from a pinch of spirulina. If you want something neon, look at Purpo.