The Thousands

Amongst the great quotes of your Wildes and Twains and Anons in the canon, there are few more worthy than “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream“. A new chance to scream comes courtesy of Gelato Messina‘s left-side project, The Lab. In the shop next door they’ve taken their regular (magical) flavours and concentrated them in to something even more luxe.

Essentially they’re ice cream cakes. But they’re a big fat edition of Larousse away from something a Barbie doll would wear as a skirt. Words like “feuilletine” and “croccantino” are bandied around.

Taking the cake up a notch, there’s an ice cream burger: a Royale w’ Cheese of chocolate crackle gelato, financier bun, white choc gelato & apricot gele’e, compressed cucumber and white chocolate slice – it’s a pretty happy meal. The Samurai is a more familiar form – an ice cream on a stick. If said ice cream was served on a white plinth in a museum of modern art; a bold work of yuzu sorbet and salted caramel swirl encased in orange scented chocolate.

Many of these delicates dance around the $10 mark, so it’s no replacement for your dirty little mid-week Viennetta habit. But as far as picking up a sweet to impress, if not screams, oohs and aahs will be guaranteed.