Homemade Ice Cream at Colombo Courtyard 

Having revamped the dessert menu a while back, Colombo Courtyard now offers a new range of homemade ice cream, made fresh daily, complete with toppings of your choice. For this tasting, I sampled all 6 of the flavours available and declared that it was a tough call between the cinnamon and the passion fruit for the best flavour. 

White Chocolate 

I’ll be honest. I really don’t like white chocolate, because to me it’s chocolate with an identity crisis, and I don’t even like chocolate too much but I’ve learnt to appreciate white chocolate in desserts (some desserts!). Hence, I was quite surprised to find that I actually liked this flavour. Sweet, almost milky and quite creamy, it best goes with the white chocolate bits (one of the 6 toppings/accompaniments on offer). 

Chilli Chocolate 

THIS ice cream really does take you by surprise. It tastes just like liquefied rich, chocolaty cake, with a mild aftertaste of chilli hitting you immediately after. The hint of chilli isn’t strong, so you won’t actually find yourself reaching for a glass of water immediately. Chopped cashew nuts or thick chocolate sauce make great additions to this flavour. 

Passion Fruit 

Light yellow in colour, this flavour truly delights. Fresh, with a slight tartness to it, the passion fruit is a perfect pick, if you, like me, are quite partial to passion fruit in desserts. Go with the fresh passion fruit sauce. You’ll love it. 

Avocado 

Green, and tasting exactly like its juice, you can tell how fresh this flavour is, because of its creamy, sweet flavour, and a smooth texture to it. 

Cinnamon 

I’m told freshly ground cinnamon goes into the preparation of this ice cream. An almost underestimated ingredient, cinnamon holds the power to uplift a dish with its strong flavour. The ice cream is subtly sweet with an overpowering flavour of cinnamon, which makes this one of the best flavours in the range. 

Coconut 

This was really nice and simple, with a subtle flavour of the coconut. With coconut, there’s always a chance that there’ll be an overpowering flavour which makes it too sickening, but this was made just right. 

About the range 

This range of fresh homemade ice cream is made with no emulsifiers or preservatives, which explains why it melts very fast. The toppings and accompaniments include crushed cashew nuts, little chunks of chocolate chip in dark and white, crushed jaggery, cookie chunks, chocolate sauce and passion fruit sauce. It’s recommended that you mix and match your ice cream and toppings for interesting combinations. 

Pastry Chef Jean Pierre (left) and Sous Chef Nalin Queju (right), responsible for the range of ice cream at Colombo Courtyard

For inquiries, please do call Colombo Courtyard on (011) 464 5333. 

Text and photographs by Sarah Kellapatha