Abuela Goye is known as one of the finest chocolate producers in all of Argentina. Though I can’t say its chocolates are some of the best I’ve ever had, it does serve some great dessert and sweet treats in general, such as chocolate-covered cookies and chocolate cake. After having some of its fantastic desserts, I was so convinced in the quality of Abuela Goye’s creations, I thought I’d take a chance on the ice cream. I can’t say I was really delighted, however. I only got three flavors, and even though they were decent, I never went back to the store. In Buenos Aires, you can find much better gelato, including chocolate, at Volta and Persicco, whereas in Bariloche, you can find better at Jauja.

What I had (recommendations in bold):

1. Abuela Goye White Chocolate—This is very good white chocolate, something you don’t normally see in Argentina. Not very creamy—more like a traditional American ice cream. But the flavor is great, and it has some nice sweetness because of the dulce de leche that’s been swirled in. 4.0/5.0
2. Abuela Goye Dulce de Leche—Creamier than the last flavor, with a great cookie crunch. But not so much flavor, and still not very creamy compared to other Argentine gelato. 2.5/5.0
3. Abuela Goye Chocolate—I didn’t even finish this one—it’s that unimpressive. Good chocolate mousse flavor, but really the flavor isn’t up to par for a place that specializes in making chocolate. Not enough sweetness and smoothness. 2.2+/5.0

While Persicco is known as the reigning king of gelato in Buenos Aires, Volta’s claim to fame is its chocolate, considered the only to be able to rival Persicco’s. The stores themselves are also some of the trendier places in town, like Persicco’s, as they are open late (until 2 am I think), have plenty of seating for people, and have a bit of a modern touch to them, making them good places to hang out with friends.

As for the ice cream, it really is quite good, and if I hadn’t tasted Persicco, I’d probably be far more generous. The flavors are incredible, and the chocolate especially just jumps out at you. The gelato is just not quite as creamy, rich, or smooth as the product from Persicco, which I’d take over Volta for almost any flavor.

What I’ve had:

1. Banana Volta: 4.5-4.7/5.0. Best banana gelato ever! I didn’t think banana could be good with chocolate chips/chunks. It has a nice creaminesss to it that’s close to Persicco’s own. Gets points for unique flavor. #1 Flavor to get here!
2. Dulce de Leche Volta: 4.3/5.0. Great, rich, caramel taste. Nothing too special in terms of the dulce de leche flavor, but it has a great cookie crunch to it that really adds some flavor.
3. Chocolate Volta—3.5/5.0. It has a nice nuttiness to it, but there are so many nuts that it detracts from the texture and the creaminess.
4. Café Italiano—2/5.0. Really nothing special.
5. Chocolate tentación/Chocolate temptation—4.0/5.0. So decadent it’s fantastic! Brownies, dulce de leche, and some great chocolate—how could you not like that? My batch was just a bit too hard.
6. Caramel and Peanuts: 4.0/5.0. This is gelato! A bit too much of caramel and peanuts for my taste, but it’s incredibly flavorful, and the flavor doesn’t detract at all from the smoothness of the gelato.
7. Tramontana: 4.0/5.0. As always, one of my favorite flavors. Great cookie crunch with some rich chocolate pieces. Great caramel flavor on it too, but just a little sweet.
8. Mascarpone con frutos del bosque/Mascarpone with fruits of the forest—3.7/5.0. Quite good, though not the best mascarpone I’ve had. Not cloyingly sweet at all. Very well balanced, with tons of fruitiness to it. Great for fruit lovers.
9. American Cookies—4.0/5.0. Very sweet, kind of plain, but for some reason, one of those flavors you just really enjoy. Cookiess are fantastic.
10. Sweet Cookies: 3.0/5.0. Very off flavor, very gingerbread-ish. The texture is weird for gelato, too—like cookie dough. Good, but too hard for gelato.
11. Chocolate Mousse: 4.5/5.0. Rich, creamy, with fantastic quality chocolate. A bit plain for me, but the quality is undeniable. Not cloying or overly sweet all.

Overall Score: 3.8+/5.0

Most regions in Argentina have their own regional takes on ice cream, particularly in terms of flavor profiles. Jauja serves that role in Bariloche, the land of chocolate in the Patagonian South. It is known as undoubtedly the best producer of gelato in Bariloche, and for good reason. Its flavors are extremely unique, integrating some of the rarer fruits and dietary from the mountains, like rosehip and goat’s milk. It is thus quite a change of pace from Buenos Aires, though you can still find all the traditional flavors.

The taste, moreover, lives up to the hype, though it really can’t compete with what you’d find in Buenos Aires. The flavors are top notch and interesting, the ice cream is rich, creamy, and smooth. The sweetness is just right. I will say, though, that the unique flavors are somewhat gimmicky and are often hit-or-miss. Whether you like some of them will often depend on how much you like fruit, and other times the flavor will just be unworkable—it’ll be something created more for the “wow” factor than for anything. Also, given the weather, some of the gelato will tend to be overly icy (with pieces of ice in it), detracting from the creaminess. That said, if you’re in Bariloche, this is your go-to ice cream stop, hands down!

Flavors I’ve had (recommendations in bold):

1. Peanut Cream: 3.5/5.0. Nice flavor. Almost like peanut butter. A bit icy—not creamy enough.
2. Mascarpone with Strawberry: 3.5/5.0. Nice flavor. Fruity really comes through—Real fruit flavor. Creamy, too, but still a bit icy.
3. Chocolate Chips: 4.0/5.0. This is money! Great, rich, semisweet, brownie-ish flavor. A tad icy when I had it, but definitely creamier than the others.
4. Calafate con Leche de Oveja (Indigenous fruit with sheep’s milk): 2.0/5.0. Interesting idea, but very plain in execution. Nothing truly distinctive. No flavor really—just a tad fruity.
5. Ristretto con Crema (Espresso with Cream): 2.0/5.0. Strong coffee/cappuccino taste. Great for coffee lovers. Flavor comes through very well, just not for me.
6. Selva Negra/Black Forest: 3.5/5.0. Doesn’t taste like a black forest at all, but very good. More like a vanilla with chocolate chunks. Good flavor, though. A little bit too much cream, but not bad.
7. Banana Split: 4.0. Banana flavor is strong, and the gelato is very creamy.
8. Crema Italiana (Italian Cream): 4.2/5.0. Score really depends on how much you like the cream portion, though I really can’t tell what the flavor is.
9. White Chocolate: 3.8/5.0. Smooth, soft, and good subtle chocolate taste. But it’s really not flavorful enough for a white chocolate—I’d like more of a chocolate taste to it.
10. Mousse of dulce de leche: 4.3+/5.0. This is the motherload of dulce de leche gelato! Interesting flavor, but it comes out so much better when the ice cream is “mousse” style—i.e. about as creamy and rich as possible. The difference in creaminess between a normal flavor and a mousse-style flavor would be comparable to the difference between an ice cream and a frozen yogurt. This really gives the dulce de leche a syrupy, melt-in-your-mouth quality that is fantastic.
11. Chocolate Profundo (Deep/Intense Chocolate): 3.8-4.0/5.0. Only for chocolate lovers! Way too chocolaty. Very bitter too, like dark chocolate. The flavor is just stifling.
12. Frutilla a la Cream (Strawberries and Cream): 4.1+/5.0. Right level of creaminess and fruitiness. Very refreshing and light.

Overall Score: 3.5/5.0

Persicco is known for being the absolute best gelato store in Buenos Aires, which is an extraordinary feat considering that Buenos Aires boasts an unbelievable number of producers. With that reputation of excellence, however, comes an equally extraordinary price, even by American standards. It was about $4 for 250 g (around 15 pesos), double the price of numerous places. That being said, the price is wholly justified, because Persicco not only has the most consistently excellent ice cream, but it has the best chocolate across the board and, unlike almost all gelato makers in Argentina, it also offers many of its own unique flavors, based on cakes that it produces in the bakery section of its store.

As an additional bonus, the store itself is a rather trendy place and is open late into the night (until 2 am or 3 am on weekends). It’s a great place to go after dinner with friends to just relax, especially because of the large amount of space, in comparison to most of the other ice cream parlors. Thus, it provides the best ice cream and the best ambience of any ice cream parlor in Argentina. This was, without exception, my go-to ice cream stop in Buenos Aires whenever I was looking for some real comfort food.

What I had:

1. Mascarpone: 4.7-4.8/5.0. Creamy, sugary, sweet, but not cloying. Just enough fruitiness to balance the almost overwhelming sweetness. Tastes like actual cream. Just a tad too sweet to be perfect.
2. Dolciatta (Dulce de leche with strawberry and a cookie crunch): 4.4/5.0. Yum! Again, just a tad too sweet b/c of the dulce de leche. Fabulous texture, though. Smooth beyond belief. The crunchy cookies really make it different from a normal dulce de leche, and the fruit adds some nice flavor, even though the blend isn’t the greatest.
3. Chocolate Persicco: 4.7/5.0. Great, rich, smooth texture. Almost the best chocolate ice cream/gelato I’ve ever taste. Not too bitter, nor too sweet, with some crunch in there too. I’m not a huge chocolate ice cream lover, but I loved it.
4. Crema Persicco (Vanilla with wine, dates, and nuts): 3.5. Nice texture. Nuts adds a nice crunch, though not as nice as the cookies in other flavors. Smooth and creamy, but bland in comparison to other flavors.
5. Tramontana: 4.3-4.5. Great crunch. Blends very nicely with the smooth, creamy vanilla. Caramel works great to add some sweetness.
6. Super Sambayón: 1.5. Kind of a mistake. Good texture and all, but bland and tastes way too much like liquor. Flavor is way too strong. Just clashes with sweetness of ice cream.
7. Chocolate Goldoni: 4.9. That is not a typo. This is a near perfect chocolate. Darker than other chocolates, but it’s nicely counterbalanced with the pieces of (white?) chocolates that are included. Not very sweet at all, but it has a great balance. Had me licking the spoon.
8. Chocuquinna (Cookie, dulce de leche, chocolate cake): 4.0. A great cookie, caramel flavor. Kind of tastes like cheesecake. A little too tame for me though—way too much cookie. Undermines richness and creaminess of ice cream.
9. Chocolate Mousse: 4.6. Almost as good as the Goldoni and Chocolate Persicco, which is surprising because it is rather strongly on the dark chocolate side, and I’m not even a huge fan of dark chocolate. Sweetness is well controlled. Moreover, it is even creamier than the other flavors—actually feels like mousse. It is perfect for dark chocolate lovers.
10. Banana Split: 4.7. Wow! Actually tastes like a banana split. The banana especially comes through, and it combines well with the caramel and cookies. Very nice aftertaste, such that that I want more and more. Only critique: a bit too much banana.

Overall Score: 4.8/5.0

Ferruccio Soppelsa is known as the best gelato producer in Mendoza, and indeed it is excellent. The gelato tends to be very creamy, with just enough sweetness. None of the flavors I have ever had have been bad, just for the simple fact that the gelato is articulated so well. That being said, some flavors are not integrated very well into the ice cream. This store definitely lived up to the hype, and it is a must try in Mendoza. However, I do prefer the gelato at Persicco in Buenos Aires by far.

Flavors I tried (recommendations in bold):

1. Tramontana: 4.2+. Fantastic. Rich, creamy, strong on the caramel. Great cookie crunch. Smooth, and almost melts in the mouth. Great vanilla taste too.
2. Dulce de Leche: 3.5. Strong stuff here. Strong dulce de leche taste. Unlike in America, it’s not swirled with dulce de leche but rather infused with it throughout the ice cream so that the whole ice cream looks brown. Too one-dimensional for my taste. Flavor is strong, but bland.
3. Pistachio: 4.0. Now this is real pistachio. It’s a bit weak on flavor, but it has a great texture—so creamy that it’s just impossible to dislike. It contains actual pistachio chunks, too—fantastic!
4. Banana Split: 4.0 Good, strong flavors. Banana comes through refreshingly. Nice mix of flavors—fruity, sweet, some chocolate. Not especially creamy though.
5. Mascarpone with fruits of the forest: 4.3. Nice creaminess, but flavor very strong, especially on the fruit.  Berry flavor very strong.
6. Selva Negra/Black Forest (chocolate and cherries): 3.0. Good, rich chocolate. Not enough fruit—just tastes like chocolate. Nice flavor, but a bit frosty and bland. Bad batch potentially. Not too creamy either.
7. Frutilla a la Crema/Strawberries and Cream: 4.2+. Fruity, creamy, rich. Nice pieces of strawberry inside. Flavor right on.
8. Americana: 3.0. Standard flavor, but not bad. Creamy. Vanilla type flavor is Mediocre/Decent, but it’s just bland.
9. Flan with Dulce de Lenche—4.5. Amazing. Great texture, rich flavor, and balanced. Unlike dulce de leche gelato, it’s not too sweet.
10. Tiramisu: 3.0. Boring. No tiramisu flavor at all. Just good gelato.
11. Rocher chocolate: 4.3-4.5. Superb. Tastes just like a gourmet chocolate, with a certain milky sweetness to it.

Overall Score: 4.0/5.0

This is another chain gelato parlor that’s known for its quality. On the recommendation of a friend I went there, but I can’t say I was impressed. The flavors are dull and lack creaminess, especially in comparison to some of the better producers. I could tell it was nothing spectacular just by trying three flavors:

What I’ve had:

Tramontana: 3.5/5.0

Super Chocolate: 2-2.5/5.0

Crema del Bosque (literally, Cream of the forest): 0/5.0 (I couldn’t even finish it)

Overall Score: 1.5/5.0