The Gelato Messina Story
Our story started in 2002, when Messina founder Nick Palumbo moved from Adelaide to open a gelato store in Sydney. For the past 20 or so years we've been working out how to make the best gelato on the planet. We think we’re pretty close. Here's how we got there...
We Make Gelato, It's Pretty Good
Every flavour you see is made using a unique recipe created by us. We never, ever use pre-made bases or mass-produced flavour pastes. In each of our stores, you’ll find a 40 flavour cabinet, with 35 traditional flavours and 5 rotating weekly specials. We also make our own range of gelato cakes which can be picked up or ordered from any store. They’re weird and wonderful, but it’s all in the name of putting a smile on someone’s face.
We are equally obsessed with the quality of the gelato as we are with the origin of the ingredients. So much so that we even have our own dairy farm that supplies us with super creamy jersey milk; arguably the highest quality milk you can get. We don’t just buy the best chocolate we can find, we actually make it ourselves using the highest quality single origin Ecuadorian cacao we can get our hands on.
"There's no point putting in a lot of something that's average because you're just going to get average. Put in a lot of something that's really good, you're gonna get great" - Donato Toce, Head Chef/Owner
Dairy Farm
Not only do we now produce our own milk, we produce some of the highest quality Jersey milk we’ve ever come across. Super high in cream content and full of flavour, our milk is the foundation and critical building block to producing the best gelato in the world.
Messina Chocolate
Messina’s labour of love has never been so relevant when telling the story of our chocolate making machine. Imported and shipped from Italy and installed in Marrickville (Sydney), this beast was custom designed for us to make all of our chocolate from scratch.
Hazelnut Farm
The hazelnuts we currently buy are a blend called tondi di gentili dele lange from Italy, and are honed as the best in the world. But this variety doesn’t grow very well in Australia and we wanted to grow our own... which lead us to buy our own hazelnut farm.
Dulce De Leche
It took a trip to Argentina, some long sessions (in broken Spanglish) with a sweet-talking man called Santiago, and the installation of a brand spanking new machine called a ‘Paila’ to mean we can proudly say we make our own dulce de leche.
We Make Everything That Goes Into Your Scoop
Instead of buying pre made ingredients, our in-house team of pastry chefs make everything from scratch
Any Toppings Or Chunky Additions You See In Our Gelato Are Also Made By Us
The brownies, the pralines, the pastries, the fudges and everything else in-between is made by our chefs at Messina HQ. We bake our own apple pies, we juice real mint leaves for the choc mint; we even make our own dulce de leche. We make the most honest, highest quality gelato we can and do our best to make sure that what you are tasting is the real deal. Anything we add to our gelato, we call 'additions'. Click below to watch some being made!
We’re Passionate (Verging On Obsessive) About The Creative Process
Whether it’s coming up with new flavours, custom products for events or a music playlist for the stores, we throw ourselves into it because that’s what we love. That’s the truth. We hope you love our creations as much as we love making them
What Our Customers Say
That’s enough from us – you can read what our customers really think of us below
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"Best gelato I've tasted"
“Best gelato I have ever tasted in my life! So many cool and creative flavours to choose from. There’s even weekly special flavours that are always super yummy. After trying Messina, I’ve stopped eating other brands of ice cream or gelato!"
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"Line Moves fast!"
“Great flavours, reasonably priced, the huge line just tells you that it's worth the wait! (line actually moves very fast)"
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"Dairy Free Sorbets Are Super Creamy"
“The original (I think) and still the best. My hubby can’t eat dairy so the chocolate or salted coconut & mango sorbets are his staple. The sorbets are really creamy - no idea how they get it so, but it’s really appreciated. As for me, I try the ever changing specials. Yum."
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"The Kids Absolutley Love It"
“This is a bit of a staple for us. I guess it helps that we live nearby. The kids absolutely love it. The service is always friendly and come with a smile and they have the most amazing flavour combinations. My advice is to use the app to pay and earn free messina money to spend in-store!"
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"You'll Never Want To Eat Regular Ice Cream Again"
“Best gelato I've had since I went to Italy last year. You owe it to yourself to try this stuff. Once you have you won't ever want to eat regular ice cream ever again."
