The ice cream maker-owner of the artisanal ice cream shop The sorbet maker in Florence he created a special ice cream with Yerbito, Italian-South American yerba mate liqueur.
Sweets, savory dishes, pizza and even… ice cream. Ad Anthony Ciabattoni, among the most recognized and appreciated gelato makers in Florence, really likes challenges. Hence a provocation: can you mix a spirit inside an ice cream? The answer is yes. And certainly not an easy spirit to manage. He demonstrated this during the last edition of the Florence Cocktail Week (7-13 April 2025), where Ciabattoni created the ice cream capable of enhancing and at the same time balancing the spicy and bitter notes of Yerbito,
Italian-South American liqueur based on yerba mate. “Yerba Tropicana”, the name of the ice cream offered for tasting during the masterclass held at the Santa Cocktail Club “Montevideo-Firenze A/R” with Agustin Enriquez Pérez of the Baker's Bar in Montevideo for the project “Gelato With the Spirits” by Paola Mencarelli.
Ciabattoni, let's start with the basics: when, how and why did you start making ice cream?
“I am an ice cream maker born in 1981. I started producing ice cream in the ice cream shops of my brother Simone and the Brustolon family (ice cream producers since the 1930s) at the age of 15. I mainly worked in the months of June and July, once I finished school. But then I became passionate and decided to pursue this little big dream that had matured inside me. In 2007, together with my wife Elisa – still at my side today in managing the company – I opened the first laboratory in Montespertoli. Subsequently, in 2009, we inaugurated the headquarters of La Sorbettiera in Piazza Tasso. In 2021 we doubled with the opening in Via Mazzetta, in Piazza Santo Spirito, and then tripled in 2023 with a new headquarters in Via dei Banchi, inside the Fratini family's Hotel Orologio”.
Let's talk about the topic of the column: how was it mixing Yerbito?
“I’ll tell you the truth: Yerbito was not easy to handle, both because of its aromatic complexity and because of the great enemy of ice cream, namely alcohol. You should know that alcohol breaks all the bonds that are created in the structure of ice cream. The maximum amount of alcohol that can be inserted into an ice cream is not by chance around 3%, beyond which the consistency is compromised”.
How did you act accordingly?
“To make the ice cream with Yerbito I didn’t just use the alcoholic part of the bitters, but I infused the yerba mate for 72 hours, combining it with fresh grated coconut to give it a crunchy component. Yerba mate, in itself, is difficult to handle because it is very dusty and therefore complicated to filter”.
Overall, what do you think about the recent trend of using spirits in ice cream? What are the pros and cons?
“Let's start with the pros: they work great when served as a drinkable sorbet or granita. The cons, however, mainly concern the technique: alcohol, as I was saying, compromises the structure of artisanal ice cream, destroying the 'good' bonds of the mixes. But for mixes designed to be enjoyed as a drink, I am absolutely in favor!”.
Photo for Yerbito by Irene Arditi
