DelaCrem was founded in 2010 by Massimo Pignata, an ice cream lover from Turin (in the north of Italy) who decided to bring to Barcelona the culture of having the best ice cream in every season of the year. Pignata majored in history and worked in tourism before his passion and curiosity for ice cream led him to start DelaCrem. The Eixample based shop can produce 80 kilos of ice cream a day in summer and has a variety of over 20 flavors.
Delacrem’s philosophy is to prepare always “puro gelato”, using select local and fresh ingredients that will grant the ice cream the pure intense flavour and texture as the authentic “gelato” should always have. Pignata takes a “slow food” approach to making his ice cream and it is this that he believes has been the key to Delacrem’s success. He cites quality of products and freshness as keys to making good ice cream. No artificial colors or flavors or synthetic ingredients are used. The ice cream at Delacrem also has less fat, ranging from 6-10%, compared with the 20-30% seen in industrial ice cream. Vegans will enjoy the sorbets that are made without any animal products.
The seasonality of the ingredients plays a key role – DelaCrem has created a “year flavour wheel”, to illustrate which ice cream is featured according to the season. For example in the spring, you will find mango or apricot ice cream, but in some weeks you won’t find them as their season time has past.
DelaCrem pays close attention to the craft of making the ice cream and also temperature used in storage. While most ice cream shops work with a pre-prepared base of milk, cream and sugar, Delacrem prepares their ice cream from scratch. It is stored at the ideal temperature of between -12 and -12.3 degrees. The ice cream is never iced but creamy and soft, so that it can be enjoyed in winter without freezing your teeth. Pignata is mindful of the fact that the higher the temperature the more you can taste the flavor of the ice cream because the tongue’s taste buds do not contract.
The shop has received multiple honors, being named on several occasions as the best ice cream of Spain and Barcelona, by both TripAdvisor and TimeOut.
Address: Carrer d’Enric Granados, 15, 08007 Barcelona
Phone: 930 04 10 93
Website: www.delacrem.cat