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Today is the first day that gelato has been available at the Orem Costco Foodcourt. You can’t beat the price: $1.50 for a large waffle cone. There isn’t a lot of selection: one size and three flavors: berry (strawberry it tastes like to me), straciatella, and pistachio. You can get all three flavors in one cone if you like. The portion size is absolutely huge. I struggled to finish mine. It would be impossible for many children to finish. The waffle cone was really tasty and I loved the berry flavor. It was quite different than the strawberry gelato I make–the strawberry flavor was more muted than I expect in gelato and it was very creamy. So I would say that this is an Americanized gelato–although I would be interested in what those of you who have spent time in Italy think. Anyway, Americanized or not, the berry was very good. I’d put the straciatella (chocolate chip ice cream) in second place. The pistachio was my least favorite–not much flavor but still cold and creamy. One effort at authenticity: their pistachio is not green, but a light nutty brown. All in all, I’m sure I’ll be getting the gelato again, but I’ll just order the berry in the future and share it with someone. The price is about 1/3 of what you’d pay at Zaza gelato (right next door to Costco inside Terra Mia) and the portion size is what? 6 times larger? 8 times larger? What a deal! (And no wonder they aren’t offering a chocolate option–they wouldn’t be able to charge $1.50 for it).
P.S., If you don’t have access to the Orem Costco, you may be out of luck. Apparently, they have installed gelato counters in only a handful of stores so far; the Orem store is a test market.
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5 Responses to “Gelato now at Orem Costco”
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We will want to try. I’ll bet I’d like the chocolate chip best, but maybe the berry. Do they give tastes?
I don’t know if they give tastes–I didn’t see anyone get one, but they will give you a generous scoop of each flavor for $1.50.
I am still wishing I could have more gelato from GROM in Florence. Of course, as I told Mike, there is room for many types creamy frozen desserts on my list of favorites, so I won’t let memories of real Italian gelato keep me from trying Costco’s version. But, alas, I doubt our Costco is a test market.
Pmom, your balsamic strawberry icecream is up there on my lists of faves…perhaps you could share the recipe here….
While Amelia and Pmom were off watching a play. Kate, Duncan and I took our bikes to Costco since I had never tried this ice cream. I enjoyed it. Even the poor pistachio which had been panned.
They actually *did* give tastes… they were near the check outs, giving people little ice-cream-spoons-ful… the week before the gelato counter opened. But the people giving out the tastes did a poor job– at least while I was there.
(1) they didn’t really explain what it was all about (I assumed it was just a new product they would be carrying in the freezer section) and (2) they were giving tastes of pistachio. Boo.
Based on that taste, I would not have bothered to pursue it– it didn’t have a very strong pistachio flavor, and seemed to have a weird aftertaste. And since the guys handing out the samples didn’t explain what it was all about, I had no idea they were putting in a little counter and selling it by the scoop in waffle cones. I was completely confused when I saw people with cones wandering the Costco the following week.
Thanks to PMom’s invitation, however, I went to the new counter, was *shocked* by the low price, and tried all three flavors. Berry and straciatella are definitely superior to the pistachio, and I definitely will indulge in them in the future, for such a low price.
Based on what I’ve been told about “real” gelato, I think this must be a pale imitation, though. Strong flavor? no, not really. It doesn’t even enter the same ballpark as PMom’s strawberry ice cream. But since I can’t expect PMom to make earth-shatteringly-awesome ice cream every time I have $1.50 to spare, I won’t refuse this product in a pinch.