Black Vanilla Ice Cream at Giovanni L.

It's summer time and naturally it's ice cream time. I've eaten a lot of ice cream in Hamburg and there is a really good one in Eppendorf (Eis-Schmidt), mediocre one in Barmbek (not worth mentioning), a good old school type in Bramfeld (Eis Cafe Arktis) and some other ice cream here and there. 

Here is one particular ice cream I find interesting enough to blog. It's the black vanilla ice cream at Giovanni L. You can find them nowadays overall in Hamburg and Hannover and I'm sure it will spring in other places too. The owner Giovanni Lasagne is big on franchising his ice cream. I tried various flavours and I must say the ice creams are good, dense and creamy, packed with flavor and there are many surprising flavours too like say red bull, campari, papaya (which is considered very exotic by the Germans) and many more.

Giovanni L. 

Back to the black vanilla, I find it super interesting because the vanilla ice cream we used to is always milky white, but if you think of it, vanilla pod is actually black. So if you blend midnight black vanilla pod and make ice cream out of it, it should be either black or at least grey or white with thousand black dots isn't it? But we are so used to ice cream mixed with artificial vanilla flavor that my first reaction on the black ice cream is eww. But once you overcome your disgust and tried the ice cream you will be rewarded with shot of intense vanilla that every other vanilla ice cream will pale in comparison. 

If you are looking for other flavours to pair it with the black vanilla, my personal favourites are pistachio, Spanish cream and black chocolate. But take it from me, you want it pure black, undiffused with other disturbing flavours. 

Black Vanilla Ice Cream