Would you be willing to pay 70 euros for an ice cream? At the Mokambo ice cream shop in Ruvo di Puglia, in the Bari area, you could do it. No, it's not a utopia: it's called "Scettro del re" and is made with a particular type of saffron and edible 24k gold leaf and to enjoy it you have to book it three days in advance.
Why Does It Cost So Much?
Born in August 2018 in the Mokambo ice cream shop of Franco, Giuliana and Vincenzo Paparella, it is the most talked about gelato cone in Italy and the reason is easy to explain: it is made with Iranian saffron from Mashhad – considered one of the best types in the world – which is then mixed with eggs, sugar and freshly milked milk from cows in the Alta Murgia National Park. The whole thing is then served on a cone, filled with cream and Bronte Pistachios Dop, and covered with a thin 24k edible gold leaf, doing justice, visually speaking, to the name it bears.
The latter would explain, for many, the excessively high price for a type of food such as ice cream: in reality, the most valuable product is saffron. In fact, only the highest part of the pistils is used, which is the most valuable, and the infusion alone lasts more or less 4 hours.
The Ultimate Experience
It's not just about ice cream: the Mokambo ice cream shop has thought of everything, offering an exclusive experience for its customers. It's called "Ultimate Experience" and gives the opportunity to enter the laboratories where milk becomes ice cream – which is equivalent to saying that it is the place where dreams come true – not only witnessing its preparation but also creating your own personal ice cream under the guidance of master ice cream makers. The whole thing has a total cost of 187 euros and is highly recommended, by the ice cream shop itself, "to food connoisseurs and lovers of good food".
There Are Those Who Loved It and Those Who Hated It
Although it may be hard to believe for some, there are those who have widely appreciated this ice cream, calling it "the best ever" or "nothing short of sublime". But, obviously, it would be strange if, with an ice cream that costs 70 euros, there were no criticisms at all: and in fact we will not disappoint you because there have been negative comments. It is easy to imagine how all the reviews have the price as the protagonist, considered excessively high by those who believe it is "a slap in the face of poverty" or by those who say that with the same money "I can do the shopping".
And it is precisely from these constant criticisms that Vincenzo Paparella, one of the owners of Mokambo, wrote an article on the official website of the restaurant in 2023, declaring that he wanted to answer "all those questions that have been asked of us in a cyclical manner for 5 years now, that is, since August 4, 2018, when we presented ‘Lo Scettro del Re' for the very first time": a text, but also a vent, in which Paparella explained all the reasons why their ice cream has that cost, starting from the negative comments of customers, also analyzing in detail the characteristics of all the ingredients that compose it.
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