Zagreb Flavoured Ice Cream

The 1970s and 1980s were the golden age of ice cream parlours owned by Albanian imigrants, which set the standard for everyone's beloved summer refreshment. Thanks to them, regular scoops have always been more popular than the limited soft serve flavours. Nowadays some of these old-school parlours still exist, but they are very much out-dated. The vicinity of Italy and the world-famous Italian gelato school could be to blame for the expansion of swanky ice cream shops in Zagreb, displaying dozens of flavours and colours. If you walk through downtown Zagreb in summer, you’ll be lured by mountains of this seductive dessert all around you. But in this plethora of ice cream possibilities, is there anything that stands out as local and original, something that can be tasted in Zagreb only? Well, yes, I believe so. Let’s list a few of Zagreb’s ice creams that are not yet another copy-paste crowd-pleaser.

                Slastičarnica Zagreb (Zagreb Patisserie) is one of downtown institutions when it comes to sweets, because it’s been open since 1950. Last renovation took place in 2011 and nowadays they offer all kinds of sweet delights, from cakes and cookies to ice cream. Wide selection and good quality make it very popular. Ice cream flavours are more or less well-known, but I mention it for their trademark ice cream dessert called Zagreb - a rich dark chocolate and hazelnut treat. There’s also a famous matching cake, designed as an edible souvenir of the city.

“Zagreb ice cream dessert” Image credit: Slastičarnica Zagreb

                Orijent patisserie has a cult following, although its location is a bit off for an average visitor. Family-owned since 1936, it’s known in not investing in interior decorating and marketing, but in high quality products and constant inovations. Ice cream is freshly made from natural ingredients only, no artificial additives. That’s why it melts quickly and you need to lick efficiently. Apart from a couple of standard flavours like chocolate, all others are their own creations, with equally imaginative names.  To name but a few: Red velvet (chocolate, beetroot and cardamom), Bollywood (coconut, mango and ginger), Greetings from the south (lavander and honey), Seventh continent (peanuts, banana, chocolate)...

“Orijent’s delicious scoops.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

                And finally, there’s a new player in town. Medenko sweet factory, as they call themselves, is actually based in Samobor near Zagreb, where they have a little café and ice cream shop. But luckily, they produce enough to sell pre-packaged ice cream in some of Zagreb’s deli shops and cafés. And that’s exactly what we lacked - natural homemade ice cream of high quality that you can take home, instead of buying another generic mass produced frozen box in a supermarket. Flavours are quite different and often connected with the season and local ingredients. It’s very refreshing to try something like poppy seed with lemon, linden flower with salted sunflower seeds, thyme with dark chocolate, carrot with cookies and almonds...

“Just a part of Medenko’s many flavours.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

                And you thought ice cream is just an ice cream, everywhere the same? Well, think again! Wherever you travel, if you scratch below the surface, among uniformed and globally present ice creams you can always find some original local treats. Lick on!

“Something different: Medenko’s beetroot and poppy seed ice cream.” Image credit: Taste of Croatia

Header image credit: Slastičarnica Orijent

Author: Taste of Croatia