Scoopful of Ice Cream: Review of frozen treats in Puerto Rico.
Coconut ice creamI have a love hate relationship with the small island my parents migrated from more than 30 years ago.
I love Puerto Rico's palm trees and beaches, I hate the Puerto Rico heat. I love the native frog the coqui, I hate the cockroaches which are ten times the size of those in the states. I hate plantains, but love rice and most of all I love Puerto Rican homemade ice cream.
On a recent trip I sampled a variety of flavors from street carts to a shop in Rio Piedras where they make homemade flavors ranging from papaya to corn, yes, corn ice cream.
During my first visit to Old San Juan I made a routine stop at the very common and popular ice cream carts sprinkled across the city. The ice cream generally comes in three varieties, coconut, pineapple and parcha, which is passion fruit.
I opted for coconut since I always associate it with my trips to Puerto Rico. The ice cream is factory produced, not homemade, but the taste is spot on. It's not the sweet coconut you might associate with a Mounds Bar, but a more subtle coconut milk taste. Its ice cream but it tastes like sorbet and it was heavenly on a hot summer day on the island.
During a visit to a friend's home I mentioned that I had started this ice cream column and he immediately said "We have to go to Georgetti's."
Georgetti's Heladeria (ice cream shop) is located on a busy street in Rio Piedras, a borough of San Juan, and on a Friday night there were dozens of people coming in and out of the shop which specializes in homemade ice creams made with fresh ingredients.
I sampled several including a corn ice cream which tastes like a sweet cornmeal breakfast in Puerto Rico known as harina de maiz. There were undertones of vanilla and cinnamon mixed with the taste of cooked corn. It's definitely not for everyone and it wasn't for me. Eating cold corn kind of grossed me out.
The shop's fruit flavors ranging from pineapple to mango, passion fruit and and papaya were exquisite and bursting with flavor. However being the peanut butter lover that I am I opted for mani, a peanut flavored ice cream with an additional scoop of their home made chocolate ice cream.
The chocolate ice cream was OK, but not great. It was a very mild chocolate, and I prefer a more potent, sweet concoction.
But the peanut ice cream which really should have been labeled peanut butter was amazing. The ice cream was smooth and creamy and was like eating a spoonful of peanut butter without the sticky side effects. I would have loved to have some bits of crushed peanuts in the ice cream, but it was still phenomenal on its own.
When you mix the chocolate and the peanut butter together it was a perfect combination.
No, this isn't ice cream you can pick up at the store, but if you're ever on vacation on the lovely island make a stop at Georgetti's or at least visit a little ice cream cart in Old San Juan. It will be well worth it.
I give the coconut ice cream from the cart four scoops and Georgetti's five scoops for its creamy and fresh desserts.