Cream Capped Summers

How to indulge in 18 natural flavours of ice cream and still be adult about it.

Written by Shantanu David
June 7, 2014 01:53 AM IST

3 min read

Chocolate waffles; Movenpick ice cream boutique at Saket’s Select CityWalk.

The best thing (perhaps the only good thing given the current soul-sucking heat) about summer is that ice cream can legitimately be considered as a meal in itself. This cheerful thought is what led us to crawl across the melting city to Saket’s Select CityWalk mall where Swiss ice cream conglomerate Movenpick, which boasts a boutique collection of “all natural” flavours sans any additives or colourings, has heralded its entry into the Capital with a discreet kiosk on one side of
the mall.

The ice cream bar is double decked, encompassing 18 ice cream and sorbet options with premium flavours ranging from Macadamia Nut and Stracciatella to Mandarin Orange and enhanced versions of the trinity of vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, among others. The prices start upward of Rs 175 a cup and Rs 210 a cone for a single scoop of ice cream. The staff is happy to offer as many samples as you like so you could make a dessert out of just that if you were so inclined.

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There is seating for over 20 people around the kiosk: low tables with servings of couches and stools. The menu, on the other hand, is extensive with a cornucopia of desserts on offer, naturally all based around the ice creams. There are sundaes with a deluge of toppings and different flavour permutations, as well as pancakes and waffles. There are ice cream drinks, with espresso shots serving as the foundations to cream-capped mountains of blended milk and ice cream, as well as tasting plates, smoothies, milkshakes and “99 percent fat free” blended sorbets for the calorie-conscious. The price averages to around Rs 500 a dessert and Rs 250 a drink. Also on offer are hot beverages, colas and energy drinks; all this naturally rounded off with a kid’s menu at about Rs 300 a dessert. Based on personal experience, the average time taken to decide what to order is about the same length as it takes an ice cream scoop to melt.

We try the Caramelta Sundae which is made with two scoops of Caramelita Ice Cream on a bed of caramel-sauce. The cream had pieces of caramel and the wafer biscuits came with lashings of whipped cream. The Caramelita is perhaps the sweetest of the flavours, satiating even our treacle-tooth. The Belgian Waffles with Belgian Chocolate and Stracciatella (vanilla flecked with large flakes of dark chocolate) is more sedate though as beguiling. That seems to be the thing about the ice cream here. Instead of being dominated by sweetness, it’s the individual flavours that stand out; the Espresso flavour, for instance, has an intense aroma and taste of well-brewed coffee rather than a generic sweet masquerading under a diaphanous veil of caffeine flavouring. Similarly, the Vanilla evokes memories of actual vanilla bean pods rather than that little glass bottle filled with black liquid, and has a hint of sugar rather than being dominated by it. Simply put, Movenpick serves ice cream for adults.