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Patagonia Chocolates’ hazelnut cremino has been crowned NZ’s best boutique ice cream.
A boutique parlour in Queenstown is officially the cream of the crop after taking out the top title as Aotearoa’s best ice cream.
Patagonia Chocolates scooped up one of two supreme awards at the New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards 2023, which were announced at a ceremony on Thursday night, with their hazelnut cremino the winner in the Formula Foods Supreme Champion – Boutique category.
G’nature, the winner of the competition’s second supreme award, Americold Supreme Champion – Commercial, proved basic can be best with their vanilla ice cream taking the medal.
Isaac Bensley, Patagonia Chocolates store manager, said the quality and care of their products, especially their hand roasted NZ nuts, were what helped them stand out against the rest.
“When you bring in your own hazelnuts, and you roast them in house, you know you’re creating the flavour that you want … when you’re taking control of the entire process, and balancing that out, I think it’s just a winning combo,” Bensley told Stuff on Friday morning.
Leigh Jeffery
The chocolate taps at Patagonia Chocolate pour out white, milk and dark varieties to dip and coat their ice creams.
He said the “real heroes” of Patagonia Chocolates’ ice creams were the staff at their Frankton factory, who are “working 90 hours a week” during the summer to create the goods.
“I have a brilliant job of selling it and tasting it, which is always important, but those guys are the absolute legends in my eyes,” Bensley said.
The boutique, originally a chocolate shop, was opened by co-owners Alex Gimenez and wife Lorena Giallonardo, who relocated from Argentina to Queenstown in 2003.
Gimenez noticed similarities between the snowy tourist town and South American ski-town San Carlos de Bariloche in the Patagonia region, famously known as the chocolate capital of Argentina.
When Gimenez noticed a gap in Queenstown’s chocolate shop market, he decided to open his own, and the first Patagonia Chocolates was opened in Arrowtown before a second store came to Queenstown in 2005.
Leigh Jeffery
Alfajores, a traditional South American sweet, are made on site at Patagonia Chocolates’ flagship Queenstown café.
The store introduced ice creams on its menu in 2007, after Gimenez visited his homeland to learn skills from his ice cream connoisseur uncle.
Chief judge Jackie Matthews says the house roasted nuts “provided a delicate and truly authentic flavour, which combined with a superbly crafted and well-made ice cream is simply stunning, deserving of the Supreme Award”.
In all, the NZ Ice Cream and Gelato Awards crowned 16 Trophy winners and 183 medals, with 64 gold medallists, 74 in Silver, and 45 in Bronze.
