Messina makes amazing ice cream. I have had a lot of ice cream in my life…but Messina will always hold a special place in my ice cream heart. They offer 40 different flavours every week, all made from scratch and using locally sourced ingredients.
I have heard that Messina periodically offers really fantastic sounding hot chocolates (including recently a baked Alaska hot chocolate). Today they had nothing of the sort unfortunately. On a normal day, you can choose from either a white, milk or dark hot chocolate using their signature blend of chocolate.
The chocolate is made by them using Ecuadorian cacao butter and cocoa mass (here is a video about the process). The milk used is from their own dairy farm. They also have a hazelnut farm in Italy (because the variety of hazelnuts they wanted don’t grow well in Australia). I’d recommend buying a jar of their Dulce de Leche and spooning that into a hot chocolate at home (unfortunately they won’t do that for you in store…but should!). Basically any toppings or additions used in store are made by them from scratch.
Messina isn’t just ice cream. Their Creative Department is a gelato centric fine dining restaurant offering a 6-course degustation. They only have 6 seats, and it is paired with alcoholic or non-alcoholic drinks. It isn’t all sweet either. The degustation showcases sweet, savoury and umami options. It’s AUD 130 and there is a waiting list. One recent dish was a black garlic gelato, Messina dark chocolate and buckwheat souffle and another a yuzu and olive oil sorbet with Moreton Bay Bugs and black pepper emulsion.
Verdict: Luckily, there are Messina’s in several cities in Australia but all over East in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra (please open one in Perth!). The hot chocolate is fine, but I really wish they wouldn’t have pazazzed it up, in true Messina style.
Messina, The Melbourne Residencies 1/109, Melbourne Street, South Brisbane
*This was featured in SIPS Issue 23: Two hot chocolate filled hours in Brisbane, Australia
