Two Sydney gelato artisans have won the Gelato World Tour title, which seeks to identify the world's best gelato, which was held in Rimini, Italy over the weekend.
The Mandorla Affogato gelato flavour created by John & Sam Crowl of “Cow and the Moon” gelato and coffee bar in Enmore in Sydney's inner-west won the title as The World's Best Gelato on Sunday night.
The pair beat 23 gelato artisans from across the globe with their winning flavour, which combines caramelised almonds from Italy with a Madagascan vanilla bean gelato with roasted caramelized coffee almonds folded through and a Kenyan coffee caramel sauce.
Competitors were scored by a technical jury, a media jury, their fellow artisans, and by the public, and Food & Drink Business travelled to Italy to attend the competition.
The pair chose to enter this flavour for two reasons, Sam Crowl told Food & Drink Business in Rimini.
“We needed to find a flavour that would work technically and one that would also please the crowds,” he said.
Crowl said the flavour was so popular among customers at their Enmore outlet, they were having trouble keeping up with demand.
Two other Australian teams, Gelato Messina from Melbourne and Frangipani Gelato from Cronulla, competed at the Gelato World Tour. Of the three, Gelata Messina won the local leg of the tour, which was held in Melbourne in October last year, with Cow and the Moon placing second.
Frangipani Gelato's Diana Kontoprias also won a special award, The Peers’ Honorable Mention, in Rimini on Sunday for her pavlova-flavoured gelato, which featured meringue pieces and passionfruit puree.
“We wanted to choose a flavour that best describes Australia,” Kontoprias told Food & Drink Business.
She said although the flavour isn't that common in Italy, it proved popular especially among older Italians attending the final leg of the Gelato World Tour.
The Gelato World Tour was run by Sigep-Rimini Fiera and Carpigiani Gelato University. More than 70,000 people attended the Grand Finale in Rimini, and the 24 competing gelato artisans produced about 6500 kg of gelato and more than 70,000 cups and cones were sold over three days.
Read the October print edition of Food & Drink Business for the full coverage.
