Berthillon ice cream, Ile St Louis, Paris, Review

I know that I'm basing a whole story on a single ice cream. But it's no ordinary ice cream, believe me on this. It's from Berthillon, a famed luxury ice cream maker whose flagship store is on my favourite place of all in Paris, the Île St Louis. This small connected island boasts some of the prettiest shops and streets, it's like walking in a movie set. It seems that shopkeepers here have not been bitten by the rude bug like many others in Paris. Or maybe I'm so in love with the area that I don't even notice. Berthillon is so good that they incredibly, shut their shop for 2 weeks in August during Summer and are closed on Mondays, although you can buy their ice cream from several stores on the Île Saint Louis and elsewhere that proudly display the Berthillon logo.

I will confess now that I am not a huge ice cream lover. Actually let me be more specific, I love ice cream but can only eat at best 1/4 or 1/3 of a scoop. Something stops me and I think "No, that's enough". That can probably save me from a future of obesity (ok my pastry addiction cancels that safety net out). But at Berthillon I can eat the whole thing and I do - selfishly.

The line of course is long for the ice creams here. It's no secret that their ice creams are wonderful. What is especially wonderful is that a flavour tastes of theirs always tastes so strongly, intensely and unmistakably like that exact flavour. Case in point is Pistachio: I once tried their Pistachio ice cream and it has ruined me for life. I tried one in Sydney at a supposedly fantastic ice cream shop only to be bitterly disappointed. You see it wasn't even vaguely Pistachioey enough. Berthillon's is unashamedly full of flavour, if someone served you a scoop of any of their ice creams and didn't tell you the flavour, you'd guess it within the first blissful lick.

I choose a double scoop, one scoop of Pistachio and one scoop of Apricot. A single cornet is 3, a double 4.20, a triple 6 and a quadruple 8. The apricot sends me into raptures, it's sweet true Apricot flavour sings through every single lick of this delicious ice cream. The pistachio, a pale green hue, not one of those lurid strong greens, is voluptuously creamy and so nutty it's a complete delight as always.

Things this deep and intense should come with a warning label.