Different ice creams spread across SP with flavors like carbonara, olive and coriander

Carbonara, olive, coriander, vinegar. Different ice creams have stood out on the menu of specialized restaurants in São Paulo.

Between August and September, Tem Umami served flavors of quindim and caprese, based on the Italian salad: with a base of basil, finished with a drizzle of olive oil, a ball of buffalo mozzarella and a confit cherry tomato.

“Come with an open mind,” asked the ice cream shop on Instagram. People went — and formed giant queues.

The video promoting the quindim ice cream had more than 400 thousand views on the Tem Umami profile, which had already gone viral before with flavors such as blue cheese and vinegar.

In September, Pinguina launched a limited edition carbonara ice cream, in partnership with the online market Trela.

“It was an idea from the people at Trela. When they suggested it, I thought it wouldn’t be good, but it was really delicious”, says Larissa Schutze, partner at Pinguina.

For the flavor inspired by the famous Roman pasta dish, the ice cream shop used a vanilla base, with more eggs, and caramelized the guanciale (cured pork cheek) with brown sugar. Just left out the cheese. “We thought it would be heavy,” says Larissa.

Carbonara may even sound conventional when compared to other flavors that Pinguina has already created for restaurants in the city, such as green beans, for the Taiwanese Aiô, and shimeji, for Ama.zo, by Peruvian chef Enrique Paredes.

According to Larissa, with the strength of social networks, the acceptance of less conventional flavors has been increasing. “Customers are more open. A few years ago we made a bacon caramel ice cream, and people were less receptive. I feel like today they are more willing to try it.”

Most of the exotic flavors are served temporarily, but some of them have already established themselves in the city. This is the case of Lida Padaria’s grilled bread ice cream, developed by one of the owners, Carolina Arantes, who was inspired by rabanada.

“The ice creams here emerged with the logic of being a product that is easier to accept than a whole 100% wholemeal bakery,” says Carolina.

Acceptance, however, has not been a problem for Lida: founded in 2024, it was voted the best bakery in the city for two consecutive years in the special O Melhor de São Paulo Gastronomia.

The grilled bread ice cream is one of the few almost guaranteed features on the restaurant’s menu, which changes every week. There you can paint flavors such as koji, the fungus used in the production of sake, and olive with olive oil.

At Lumi Creamy, “creative ice creams with a Brazilian flavor” are the specialty. The flagship is the roll cake flavor, made with curd cheese and guava paste and covered with slices of the Pernambuco delicacy.

It was the choice of Spanish player Lamine Yamal, from Barcelona, ​​when he spent his holidays in Brazil in June.

Fabricio Luminato, pastry chef and founder of the house, has already invented flavors such as bottled butter and chocolate with coriander, instead of the more traditional mint.

In November, Lumi should launch an ice cream called tiraminorte, a reinterpretation of tiramisu with references from the North and Northeast of Brazil.

However, the most daring ideas of ice cream masters are not always embraced by their clientele.

It happened with the palm flavor created by Fabricio. “For me it was incredible, delicious, but people thought it looked like a cold moqueca.”

Lida Bakery
R. João Moura, 911, Pinheiros, western region, tel. (11) 99577-5432. @lida_padaria

Lumi Creamy
R. Medeiros de Albuquerque, 147, Vila Madalena, west region. @lumicreamy

Penguin
R. Medeiros de Albuquerque, 337, Vila Madalena, western region, tel. (11) 98122-6493. @pinguina_sorveteria

Has Umami
Copan Building – av. Ipiranga, 200, República, central region, tel. (11) 95357-4422. @temumami