Sometime in the 1660’s, English noblewoman Lady Anne Fanshawe wrote down the first official ice cream recipe. The recipe starts by boiling some cream with mace. If that doesn’t throw you off, wait for what comes next.
For flavour Lady Anne would add ambergris and sugar. Not sure what ambergris is? Without going into too much detail, we’ll tell you that it comes from the intestines of whales. Yum!
Thankfully ice cream has come a long way since then and today we’re spoilt for choice, with ice cream and gelato coming in all sorts of flavours – none of which include a whale’s intestines as an ingredient. From Belgian chocolate and banana to rum and raisin and tutti frutti, you could try a different flavour every day of the year.
Here on the Gold Coast, we’re not shy of a crazy creation either, meaning ice cream and gelato is never boring. Here’s our pick of the best places for ice cream on the Gold Coast with the most exciting and tasty frozen delights.
Gelato Messina
Coolangatta
Gelato Messina is the king of dessert heaven. The gelato is made in-house with love, and you’ll go weak at the knees for their 40 different flavours. While they’re renowned for their salted caramel with white chocolate chip gelato, other flavours you might like to try to include pear and rhubarb, salted coconut and mango salsa, apple pie, and mint choc chip made with fresh mint leaves. Always check out the specials board too where you’ll find five new flavours every week, like DR. Evil – chocolate gelato with peanut butter cookies and dulce de leche.
Heven-Yah
Mermaid Beach
Amy and Holly Prosser’s addictive frozen treats have formed a solid following and locals flock to Heven-Yah’s 1950s-style corner building on hot days. The most charming gelato place on the Gold Coast, it’s the only venue that uses a traditional “pozzetti” for storing its frozen products. Flavours include orange and poppy seed, chocolate almond (vegan-friendly and made on almond milk), mascarpone with cherry, and refreshing sorbets like strawberry, mango, rockmelon and apricot – all of which use fresh, local ingredients.
CocoWhip
BSKT, Mermaid Beach
The world’s first vegan and bio-fermented coconut soft serve, CocoWhip has taken the Gold Coast, and now the world, by storm. There are six flavour staples: Coconut (the original), Minty Matcha, Cacao Bliss, Super Berry, African Mango and Turmeric, and the just added AcaiWhip. For the health-conscious vegan, your prayers have been answered with CocoWhip!
My Gelato
Coolangatta
My Gelato is a world-class gelato venue that never uses artificial flavours or colourings. The gelato bursts with flavour with every lick and is made using fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. If you can’t decide between an ice cream or a coffee, you’ll love My Gelato’s incredible affogato, a decadent scoop of creamy vanilla ice cream drowned with a shot of hot espresso.
The Gelato Shop
Broadbeach
If you get overwhelmed by choice then The Gelato Shop isn’t for you. With chocolate fudge brownie, rocky road, sticky date pudding, peanut butter cup, crunchy lemon cheesecake, banoffee pie, jam doughnut, caramelised fig and mascarpone, you’ll never be short of choice. In fact, there are 96 flavours (many award winners) and the flavours keep on coming. There’s also a great range of ice cream cakes.
Quench
Southport
With a colourful cabinet of fresh sorbet and gelato, Quench is almost impossible to walk past. The icy goods come in an amazing array of flavours, from strawberry shortcake and cherry coconut to jaffa and peanut brittle and vegan coconut. Located in Ferry Road, Market Quench is the ideal spot to cool off in Southport.
Gelatissimo
Surfers Paradise
Gelatissimo might be a chain but that doesn’t mean their ice cream and gelato isn’t made with love and creative flair. Themes are all the range at Gelatissimo, and celebratory flavours have included Vegemite for Australia Day and Liquorice Scream for Halloween. They’ve also teamed up with Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in the past to create an animal series complete with zebra, snake, giraffe, clownfish and leopard-flavoured scoops.
Sweet Bliss Donuts
NightQuarter
Their name might be making you think of holed delights of the fried variety, but Sweet Bliss Donuts serves up some of the tastiest ice cream sandwiches you can imagine. Follow them on Instagram and you’ll see what we mean. Promised your little princess a sweet treat? Try their Rainbow Unicorn Ice Cream Sandwich which is almost too pretty to eat.
Betty’s Burgers
The Kitchens
Betty Burgers’ house-made ‘concretes’ are made from frozen custard ice cream churned in a custom-made machine. The ice cream is beaten at a slow pace which creates a dense, creamy consistency enabling the mix to hold added ingredients. You can add spiced pecan and banana cream pudding, toffee marshmallow, honeycomb and orange biscuit crunch, or lemon raspberry cheesecake, just to name a few.
Treat yourself
If you’re on the Gold Coast, make sure to try at least one of these great ice cream and gelato places. But if you’re not much of a sweet tooth, or you’re looking for a main meal before heading out for dessert, check out The Coolangatta Hotel.
