Scoop This: OGGI Gelato Opens First Shop in the U.S. in Norwalk

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Andrew Dominick June 03, 2024

Udine, Trieste, Pordenone, Rome, Barcelona, Santiago, Athens, and…Norwalk, Connecticut? So, you usually don’t see six European cities and one South American city mentioned in the same breath as Norwalk, but when it comes to gelato and master gelato maker, Carmelo Chiaramida, this is perhaps the one time it applies. What Chiaramida is doing in Norwalk, opening his first OGGI Gelato shop in America, is simply every local ice cream lover’s good fortune.

Call it a coincidence through connection, actually. And it’s best spelled out by Maurizio Ricci, who along with his brother, Graziano, are the founders of Romanacci and Norwalk’s Osteria Romana.

A Visit to Arethusa Farm Dairy: Exceptional Cows Make Exceptional Ice Cream

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jeffrey schlesinger October 27, 2020

Back in April my colleagues from CTBites visited Arethusa Farms to perform a “meet & greet” with 300 cows that comprise the foundation to the Arethusa dairy products. These world renown Holsteins and Jerseys produce some of the best milk, and by extension the ice cream that is sold in the Arethusa Farm Dairy store is world class. More recently, they visited Arethusa Al Tavolo and enjoyed numerous dishes prepared with numerous of the farm’s ingredients, including the cows’ milk. The team was not able to visit the ice cream storefront on either visit as the line was staggering, so it fell heavy on my shoulders (insert smile) that I took one for the team and lazily drove to Arethusa Farm Dairy one Sunday afternoon.

Arethusa Dairy Farm: Saving CT Farmland Through Exceptional Dairy

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Jessica Ryan February 26, 2020

CTBites and Terrain were recently invited to Arethusa Dairy Farm for a behind the scenes tour of their dairy farm and cheese making process. But before we get all cheesy, I want to share the wonderful story of a once little known dairy farm.

It all began in 1999 when the Webster family put their 150 year old family farm up for sale. Worried that their view would be obstructed, and to preserve the historic property, neighbors George Malkemus and Anthony Yurgatis stepped in to purchase the farm once named for a small pink orchid that grew in a swamp on the land. Malkemus and Yurgatis promised to restore its original name, and such were the humble beginnings of the Arethusa Dairy Farm.

Annabelle's Natural Ice Cream Now Being Sold @ Gingerbitz in New Canaan

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Jeff "jfood" Schlesinger July 22, 2015

In a town that offers the best gelato in Fairfield County, New Canaan has been void of the same quality ice cream. That has now changed as Gingerbitz on Elm Street is now selling scoops of Annabelle’s Ice Cream from Portsmouth, New Hampshire. When I heard the news I headed straight to Gingerbitz to sample.

Nestled alongside the cakes, pastries, woopie pies and the Stumptown coffee, Gingerbitz offers four rotating varieties. With the scorching temperature this past weekend, there were several people lined up to order a cone or a cup of the current selections; Triple Chocolate, New Hampshire Pure Maple Walnut, Raspberry Chocolate Chip and Salty Caramel. A quick look on Annabelle’s website describes the ice cream a “super premium, 16% butter fat, kosher®, natural ice cream with NO additives or artificial colors.”

Each of them were extra-creamy, dense and full of great flavors. The chocolate was my favorite. The richness of the chocolate was elevated by chocolate chunks and a dark fudge.

Connecticut's Best Dairy Farm Ice Cream: 2014 Edition

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Lou Gorfain June 22, 2014

With summer finally here, we have updated and expanded our annual roundup of the best dairy farm ice cream in Connecticut.

You can’t get closer to farm fresh ice cream than tasting it at farm. Not only do you see the cows, you whiff them, and that aroma is part of the authenticity of the experience, if not the charm. Sure, these farms aren’t close by. But WTD. They’re “Worth The Drive” And worth the lick: usually the freshest, creamiest, and most flavorful retail ice cream available in Connecticut.

While Chocolate and Vanilla remain cash cows, dairy farms also offer a greater array of flavors than you’ll find at parlors or in the supermarket freezer case. In fact, farmers have begun to rival restaurant chefs for sheer inventiveness and culinary dairying-doo.

So, for your and your family’s guilty or innocent pleasures, we submit our favorite cow-to-cone ice creams …

The Best Gelato Shoppes & Store Brands in CT: A Roundup

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Lou Gorfain September 13, 2013

In September, as fresh flavors fill in the garden, berry patch, and orchard, it seemed a perfect time to hunt for the best Gelato.

“Flavor is what Gelato is all about,” says Guy Chandonnet who buys Fairway’s frozen foods and deserts, “Unlike ice cream,” he told us, “low fat gelato doesn’t coat the taste buds with butterfat. So its full flavors can really burst through.

As we tasted our way though both store-bought and shop-scooped Gelato in Southern Connecticut, we were dazzled with the invention and intensity of flavors.

Because it's slow churned, Gelato is denser and silkier than ice cream, making it a superior platform for flavor. And since Gelato melts more quickly in the mouth, it delivers that flavor quickly and dramatically. That's why most gelato masters delight in imaginative, often unexpected flavor adventures, mixing sweet, savory, salty and tart, and incorporating fruits, vegetables, herbs, cheeses, and even meat flavors into their frozen creations. What’s in season often translates to what’s in Gelato.

Here are some of the spectacular flavors we recently tasted in Southern Connecticut’s supermarkets and gelato shoppes.

Iskream: Walnut Beach Creamery Owner Creates New Brand Without "Real" Sugar

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Nancy Kleeger June 11, 2013

There is nothing I love more than a good "grass roots" story - and this particular story involves a love affair with a sweet confectionary that has stood the ultimate test of time. It is the result of one local Milford woman's passion for creating great ice cream and an idea to lower ice cream's sugar content. I'm sure this ice cream innovator's tale, will soon become a part of "sweet" history, right there alongside the revered Mrs. Fields.

I think it is safe to say that most Americans could conjure up iconic visions of having ice cream on a hot summer's day at the beach.. at the ballpark.. at family picnics and at birthday celebrations. Ice cream is inherently part of the American Way of life - be it chocolate, vanilla, mint-chocolate chip or strawberry, be it from a store, an ice-cream cart or the beloved Good Humor man and his captivating bells. Iskream, the brainchild and collaboration of Susan Patrick and Biagio Barrone, was born out of Susan's very own creamery in Milford. She owns the storefront Walnut Beach Creamery which has been churning out amazing, inventive flavors to locals since 2007.