N2 Extreme Gelato has been around for years and years, and I finally made a pit stop on the way to attending a colleague’s book launch. Their gelato is made to order using liquid nitrogen with flavours changing every week on Thursdays, with the exception of mango sorbet being a menu staple.
They mae the gelato in front of you so watching the theatrics as the liquid nitrogen fog creeps across the counter and out to the waiting area is part of the experience.
2015
The first time, I tried the yuzu sake sorbet (~4% alcohol). I’m not much of a fan of sake but I do love yuzu. My penchant for yuzu flavoured foods took off while I was in Japan, even though I was aware of it previously. It’s a very interesting citrus – it’s flavour was sweet and also a tad bitter, but not so sweet as a mandarin or bitter as a grapefruit.
The yuzu and sake sorbet was delicious. The dominant flavour was yuzu, with the sake being very subtle and having none of the unpleasantness that I’ve experienced from drinking most sake. This left the sorbet particularly refreshing for a hot summer’s afternoon.
A couple of days later, I visited again with N and T after work. They’d changed the menu by then so this time, I tried Pash Me Pavlova. Pash Me Pavlova is a a creamy passionfruit and strawberry gelato with crunchy meringue pieces through out. Strawberry dominated the gelato, with the only hint of passionfruit being passionfruit seeds and a slight tanginess. I did enjoy the meringue pieces, though. They gave some much needed texture to typical heaviness associated with a creamy gelato.
In the background to this photo, you can see the chalkboard wall that lists all the flavours of gelato that have featured on their menu.
A constantly changing menu must be a challenge to manage. But it’s sure way to keep your customers coming back for more when it’s gelato. Of course that means that each menu must be just as interesting as the previous. N2 Extreme Gelato seems to have that worked out. The blackboard at the back of their store records every flavour they’ve ever invented. And every month or so, a new flavour will pop up on their website beckoning me to visit.
After lunch to farewell a colleague in June on the coldest day in seven months, a couple of us popped by for dessert. I get the Caramel Apple Toffee, an ‘apple pie gelato with crunchy apple pieces mixed through, given a caramel top, rolled in crushed peanuts and finished with a caramel syringe’. I’ve had apple pie ice cream before at Gelato Messina but the cinnamon was so in-my-face that it tasted terrible. The cinnamon here is subtle and pleasant. What makes this gelato amazing, though, are the generous number of deliciously crunchy apple pieces that give refreshing bursts of flavour, and as described. The syringe of caramel brought the gelato and the apple together, adding a creamy sweetness. And of course, nuts make everything tasty and there’s nothing like cracking a hard top.
I go back a couple of weeks later for the passionfruit meringue pie ($9.00). It’s a passionfruit gelato topped with crumble and a meringue top much like a deconstructed-reconstructed pie. The passionfruit gelato is creamy and made with real passionfruit pulp. The pulp disappears into the ice cream (rather than being pretty ribbons), but the seeds remain and give the gelato a pleasant crunch. The crumble was my favourite part of the ‘pie’ – together with the passionfruit seeds, it gave the gelato and meringue some much needed variety in texture. The meringue was sweet, which complemented nicely with the rather tart gelato. I’d have liked the meringue to be a tad more stiff (it collapsed into a blob after being piped on), but otherwise it was a very tasty ‘pie’!
And later on, it’s the Turkish apple tea gelato ($7.00). I love all things apple flavoured and especially Turkish apple tea, so this flavour had me curious. But in reality, it’s a rather ‘boring’ flavour because it tastes exactly like a gelato form of Turkish apple tea. There’s nothing exciting about it. It looks exactly like sludgy snow (or what snow looks like after a couple of days). Other than that, the texture is super smooth, which I’ve come to expect from liquid nitrogen sorbets. The first hit of the Turkish apple tea reminds me of its sour notes, but once you keep eating the flavour mellowed out and I’m left wanting for a stronger flavour.
And finally, this black sesame creme brulee ($9.00) has got to be one of the ugliest flavours – it looks like a melted puddle of cola flavoured slushie. But the beauty of n2 is that you order using the descriptions and drawings on the chalkboard, and at the end of the day, really, who cares as long as it tastes good, right? Indeed, the bruleed top gave a satisfying crack (fun!), and was a tasty and crunchy novelty with the otherwise creamy gelato.
I’ve found that liquid nitrogen tends to create impossibly smooth textured gelato. If it’s a sorbet, it’s so devoid of crystals that it’s weird and makes me want more texture, like in the Turkish apple tea gelato. With a creamy gelato though, this smoothness elevates an already tasty flavour to something absolutely delicious. The lack of crystals makes the base super smooth so you’re more aware of the textures of the toppings, or in this case, the pleasant grit of the black sesame that you’d otherwise overlook amidst the crystals usually. Yum!
2016
The new year saw N2 Extreme Gelato get an interior makeover. It’s now a much brighter space sporting near floor-to-ceiling chalkboards walls (they’ve rewritten the flavours from the original boards) with wooden flooring and benches.
My first visit with N in 2016 featured Lemon & Jasmine Sorbet on the menu. I love the mellow floral notes of jasmine, which are apparent in this sorbet. Equally apparent, though are the zesty lemon notes that give a pleasant tang to the sweetness sorbet. This was deliciously refreshing on a hot summer’s day.
A couple of weeks later, as if N2 knew N had a craving, there’s Bounty on the menu. It’s a coconut gelato with desiccated coconut and cocoa nibs, chocolate coat, sprinkle of desiccated coconut and a vegan choc syringe. This is quite a light ice cream and less teeth-rottingly sweet than the actual Bounty chocolates. Not being a fan of chocolate, N did away with the choc syring, which had solidified after sitting briefly in the ice cream in any case.
I’d never been much intersted in the Ferrero-inspired flavours at N2, but N’s craving for Bounty and a box of Christmas chocolates at D’s had reawakened by love for Raffaello. It’s essentially the only white chocolate I like, and I like it more so than many cocoa chocolates.
Lucky for me, a few weeks later, N2 brought back Raffaello on their menu. It’s a milk gelato with white chocolate coconut fudge and slivered almonds, a roll in desiccated coconut, and a white chocolate coconut syringe. This is one delicious ice cream! The white chocolate coconut fudge is delectably chewy and the slivered almonds are generous and deliver great crunch, while the syringe delivered an intense hit of white chocolate and coconut that leaves you in no doubt as to the fact that this is a Raffaello ice cream. Yum!
N2 Extreme Gelato is located at 43/1 Dixon St, Sydney NSW 2000.