Ice Cream
Canal Patisserie ice cream in Hackesche Höfe
© Canal Berlin
Map
Opening Times
Monday & Tuesday: Closed
Wednesday to Saturday: 12.00 - 7.00 pm
Sunday: 12.00 - 6.00 pm
Address
Canal – Artisanal Ice cream & Pastry
Rosenthaler Straße 40-41
Hackesche Höfe, Hof 1
10178 Berlin-Mitte
.How to get there
Contact
The tiny ice cream shop in the Hackesche Höfe in Mitte could easily be overlooked if long queues didn't continuously form in front of it. Ice cream lovers from all over the world crane their heads to catch a glimpse of the promising signs on the round containers of delicate ice cream while waiting. Canal Artisanal Ice cream & Pastry is the full name of the ice cream factory, and it is: nomen est omen!
Because what the two South Americans, Daniella Barriobero Canal and Guadalupe Eichner, produce in their nearby ice cream laboratory has more to do with artistic patisserie than with classic ice cream production. Six years ago, they came to Berlin together from Venezuela: they wanted to learn German, but above all, they wanted to leave their jobs as engineers behind.
For a long time, Daniella had dreamed of having her own ice cream parlour, Guadalupe Eichner of being close to her German roots. In Berlin, they soon realised that here, unlike in Venezuela, ice cream was not only available at weekends but every day. Nevertheless, they opened a café called Waffel oder Becher first, where they have been serving Belgian waffles with exclusive toppings ever since.
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In Barcelona, Daniella attended her first patisserie courses, thus laying the foundation for later ice cream production. But when the ice cream shop opened in Hackesche Höfe in 2015, it wasn't ready yet: the ice cream was bought in. However, the frustration about the inferior quality of the ice cream led to the desire to make it themselves.
While an ice cream lab was set up at Waffel oder Becher, Daniella went to Senigallia in Italy and learned from Paolo Brunelli how to make high-quality ice cream. Since then, no other ice cream has crossed Canal's counter than their creations made from the very best ingredients: fresh organic milk from Lobetaler, pistachios from Bronte and hazelnuts, which they found after endless tastings at a small producer in Piedmont.
"Hazelnuts can taste so incredibly different depending on how they are roasted," Guadalupe Eichner tells us. "We really had to try a lot until we were happy." They are now refined directly by the farmers in a so-called wood roasting process, which gives them their very special aroma. But all the other ingredients are also meticulously researched and lovingly selected, as they make the big difference in the end.
Citrus fruits and melons also come directly from Italy, and berries are fresh from the surrounding countryside. The chocolate is exclusively supplied by Valrhona. One of their chocolates, made from double-fermented cocoa beans, refined with a hint of passion fruit pulp that brings out the unique aroma of the cocoa, gives the delicious chocolate sorbet its unique taste, for example.
Recipes are continuously refined, and new creations are composed. Soundful ones, such as "Creme Canal" with roasted pistachios and salty butter caramel sauce or "White Sesame", a sesame ice cream with miso and homemade apricot sauce or "Almond Blood Orange", a swirl of almond ice cream and blood orange sorbet with caramelised macadamia, make the decision almost impossible.
Incidentally, we discovered Canal in spring through the adorably decorated eclairs with which the ice cream parlour bridges the winter. The choux pastry, which is filled in their own factory with all the high-quality ingredients that make ice cream so special in summer, proved to be such a success that Daniella and Guadalupe have since been busy looking for a location that can accommodate ice cream and eclairs at the same time. - Hopefully, it will be soon!
