How to tell whether gelato is really artisan

We have been making gelato on this square since 1999, and in twenty-five years we have seen everything. These are the signs we look for when we walk into a gelateria we do not know.

1. The colour of the pistachio

Real pistachio is a dull greenish brown, almost sad to look at. Fluorescent green pistachio is colouring. The same goes for banana: if it is bright yellow, it is not banana; real banana oxidises and turns greyish. Muted colours are good news.

2. The mountains

Gelato piled into tall peaks, decorated with plastic fruit or wafers stuck in like flags, usually carries a lot of air and stabilisers to hold the shape. Artisan gelato is heavier and keeps better flat, in closed tubs or barely smoothed over. The less spectacle, the better the sign.

3. What is missing from the counter

A gelateria that makes its own has flavours that run out and flavours that come and go with the season. If the list is identical in January and August, and nothing is ever missing, the gelato comes from somewhere else. We keep a fixed list and a few seasonal ones — ask at the counter, because they change.

4. The texture when it is served

Artisan gelato is served warmer than industrial ice cream, so the spatula slides in and the gelato folds rather than scrapes. If it has to be chiselled out, it is too cold: hardness has been bought at the price of flavour, because cold numbs the tongue.

5. The milk

This is the invisible part. An honest cream gelato tastes of milk first and of everything else second; if sugar arrives first, the order is wrong. Vanilla is the acid test, which is why it tells you more about a house than any other flavour.

At Malía

Made in-house every day, on the same machine and to the same recipes as always. By the scoop, in a cone or in a cup; and for home, in half-litre and litre tubs. The gelato menu lives at the counter — or you can simply look at the vitrina and let it tempt you.