We have been trying to make it to a gelato shop here in Toronto for a number of days. With summer busy-ness, it kept getting pushed. We had plans in the evening, or we’d already had desserts at another celebration during the day. Or one or the other of us was out doing other interesting things. As a family, we like having experiences together. And this one seemed like one of the together kinds of experience to have.

The story of the said gelato shop started for me when I was on a solo retreat in the small town of Port Hope earlier in July. I spent a lot of time walking around the town, in my quest to slow down and do nothing. The days were sunny, and the temperatures were summer-high, which means a gelato in the middle of the day was a fantastic idea. I went in for a taste, but one little taste of the passion fruit-lemongrass gelato, and I was quick to order it without a second’s hesitation.

Sitting by myself near the window with the hot sun streaming down on me, just savoring every lick of that very refreshing and clean taste was just heavenly. The lady told me of the place in Toronto where they sourced their gelato. In that moment, I did have a twinge of “what, its from my own city-then its not special enough!”. 

Ridiculous, I know. But I did come back for other flavors over the days I spent in Port Hope. So, my hesitation over it being local to me did not prevent my enjoyment of it, clearly.

When I came home and told my boys about it, well, we planned to get there soon. It was hardly 5 kilometers from us. But it took us a while to get there. 

Until last night. We made zero plans, except, let’s go to “Death in Venice” after dinner. 

I had bourbon smoked chocolate- I had no idea one could smoke chocolate, and well, it was stunning! We ended up buying 6 tubs of the most interesting flavors for home. A taste test at home was something I couldn’t resist. My favourite- olive oil and sea salt- again, it would never have occurred to me to have an olive oil flavored ice cream…but I’m glad someone came up with that idea!

Let’s just say, thanks to my Port Hope visit, we are well stocked with very interesting flavors of gelato for a good while 🙂