Helen and I were kindly invited to Snowflake Gelato in Wardour Street, Soho, London to try out some of their delicious wares. The shop – or ‘boutique‘ as they call it – is light, fresh and modern-looking with mirrors on one wall and a large refrigerated counter just as you enter, holding many different flavours of gelato – an ice-cream lovers dream. There are tall stools to sit up at a counter or towards the back, seats and tables.
Snowflake have three ranges with over 50 different flavours.
- Luxury Gelato – handmade every day in the two shops – which includes organic jersey milk & cream and sugar with favourites such as strawberry, vanilla and chocolate but also unusual ones like cinnamon, date & honey and sea-salted caramel
- Luxury Sorbetto which is fat-free, dairy-free, gluten-free and suitable for vegans and vegetarians, again handmade using seasonal fresh fruits with refreshing sounding flavours such as apple & elderflower or watermelon
- Guilt-Free Sorbetto, this is the same as Luxury Sorbetto but without added sugar with flavours such as lychee and pear which we had a quick taste of and was lovely. So, you can have a tasty treat if you are trying to be good or healthy.
We chose a small tub of two flavours each from the luxury range. I chose coconut and the chef’s special ‘dark chocolate’. They certainly tasted delicious, smooth and very creamy. I especially loved the dark chocolate as it was really rich and intense and was just like eating melted dark chocolate. Helen tried a tub containing strawberry cheesecake which I must say I half wished I had chosen as it was wonderful with bits of strawberry in it and white chocolate and also a sweet little miniature cone with praline gelato in it, just enough as a small treat of something sweet.
Snowflake have a menu booklet full of different treats, not just gelato but waffles and crêpes, cakes, juices and smoothies, coffee and a selection of teas. We thought we’d chose a couple of different things on the menu so we ordered an Affogato which is Fior di Latte (translates to ‘flower of milk’, but basically vanilla) gelato with a shot of espresso poured over it. Ours was more of a double or triple espresso served in a rather large glass but it was very nice and creamy. We took a look at the list of crêpes, unfortunately the ones we chose each had ingredients which the shop didn’t have so they could not be made as they were described in the booklet, but the kind chap who was dealing with us made the ‘Bronte’ – pistachio gelato (a lovely light green colour, creamy with pieces of pistachio) pistachio butter and whipped cream – and substituted the pistachio butter with Nutella adding a sprinkle of pistachio pieces on top of the cream. The Nutella worked well – but then, when does Nutella ever fail? – and it was so yummy we polished it off quite quickly.
Snowflake have another boutique in Bayswater and also have a gelato cart which can be taken to venues such as weddings and birthday celebrations. You can even purchase your favourite ice cream flavours to enjoy at home in a specially insulated take-away box. Unfortunately this we couldn’t do as we had to get across London to Helen’s flat near Tooting and then drive home in rush hour traffic for 2 hours.
I must say that Wardour Street does seem to have some brilliant places for food and treats. There’s L’Eto cafe, Paul A Young the chocolatier who makes wonderful flavours of chocolates, some weird but all delicious and Gail’s Bakery where they have excellent cakes and bread. Snowflake is certainly worth a visit if you’re in the area, it won’t disappoint.
Living life, loving gelato
A x
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