The Shop: Gelato Messina
Locations: Various locations around Australia: Sydney, Melbourne, Queensland, and Canberra
I was spending the day sightseeing around Sydney, Australia with a good friend. Naturally, the agenda included the Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, and delicious ice cream. Now, we’re just friends, but a guy and a girl walking around- we looked like a couple, though she’s very beautiful and way out of my league 🙂 We headed over to Gelato Messina and were awestruck by 40 delicious looking and sounding flavors.
“Do you want to share?” I asked.
“No” was the frank reply.
I was surprised, (girls always want to share and then eat more than half, don’t they?) but I wasn’t complaining! Not only did we not share, but we each ordered triples- I got Salted Caramel White Chocolate, Malted Vanilla, and Tiramisu, and she got Salted Caramel, Pistachio Praline, and Salted Coconut and Mango Salsa.
We sat down outside, hurriedly took pictures, and dug in. As we started to dig in, the husband of the couple across from us turned to his wife and said, “See? They don’t have to share.”
Gelato Messina: so good, you won’t want to share.
Ask anyone for ice cream recommendations in Australia, and Gelato Messina will be very high on their list. It’s easy to see why- the flavors are unique and absolutely delicious. They also have 5 rotating weekly specials that are generally extra unique- such as “Lamington” and “A-MALAYSIANG” (description: “coconut and rambutan gelato with baked coconut cheesecake”).
As a bonus, sometimes the weekly specials are different at different stores, so with 11 stores in Sydney, you have a great excuse to go more than once a week!
Their best seller is the Salted Caramel White Chocolate, but my personal favorite is their most popular sorbet, the Salted Coconut & Mango Salsa. Incidentally, this is a vegan flavor and they have an outstanding vegan selection; 9 of their 35 Classic Flavours are vegan.
Gelato Messina is also famous for their incredible selection of gelato cakes. These are wild, zany works of art that are completely edible. The most famous one is most likely the “Dr. Evil’s Magic Mushroom” cake.
I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to try their gelato cakes, but I did get a chance to flip through “Gelato Messina: The Creative Department”, their gelato cake cookbook. This team is passionate borderline on insane! They have some super fun concoctions, including gelato treats that look exactly like hamburgers or hot dogs. Making the cakes requires special custom silicone molds, either dry ice or a blast (extra cold) freezer, and apparently a fair bit of patience.
If you’ve ever tried to recreate one of their cakes please please drop us a line, we’d love to hear how it went or have a guest blog post about it. As for me, I plan on trying their gelato recipes, but no cakes in the near future- blast freezers are a bit card to carry around while traveling 🙂
I was doing some research on their website to write this post, and their passion for high quality ingredients and gelato is incredible. They have their own dairy farm that supplies their milk, they make their own chocolate, in fact, they make all their toppings and mix-ins themselves. They also have their own hazelnut farm. And strawberry farm. They’re borderline obsessive- no, I think they’ve passed that point already.
If you’re wondering the best location to get Gelato Messina in Sydney, I’d recommend the location at Bondi Beach. Bondi Beach is a stunningly beautiful beach with amazing surf and a gorgeous cliff walk, and it’s public transit accessible- and Gelato Messina is literally a two minute walk from the beach. Gelato doesn’t get better than that.