Berthillon
Encyclopedia
Ice cream
Ice cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, and often combined with fruits or other ingredients and flavours. Most varieties contain sugar, although some are made with other sweeteners...
and sorbet, with its primary store on the Île Saint-Louis
Île Saint-Louis
The Île Saint-Louis is one of two natural islands in the Seine river, in Paris, France . The island is named after King Louis IX of France ....
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. The company is owned and operated by the Chauvin family, descendants of the eponymous Monsieur Berthillon, who opened the first store in 1954.
Berthillon sells its ice cream in bulk and by the scoop from its shop on the island, but many other retailers in Paris sell its ice cream in cones and cups, and some grocers sell larger amounts. Berthillon's fame derives in part from its use of natural ingredients, with no chemical preservative
Preservative
A preservative is a naturally occurring or synthetically produced substance that is added to products such as foods, pharmaceuticals, paints, biological samples, wood, etc. to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes....
s, artificial sweeteners or stabilizers. Its ice creams are made from only milk, sugar, cream and eggs. Flavourings derive from natural sources (cocoa, vanilla bean, fruit
Fruit
In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...
, etc.). Fifteen flavors are produced everyday by the chefs depending of the season, the availability at the market and the customer's demand. In total about sixty different flavors are produced by the Maison Berthillon throughout the year.
Many consider Berthillon to be the best ice cream of Paris and maybe of France. It is annually visited by Parisian, French tourist but also people from all over the world looking for delicious and flavorful ice cream or sorbet.
Like many family-run Paris businesses, Berthillon may be closed for part of the summer (usually the last two weeks of August)but you still can find their ice cream at the numerous retailers in the streets of the Ile Saint Louis. Competitors to Berthillon in Paris include other local purveyors, as well as a few multinational chains, such as Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's
Ben & Jerry's is an American ice cream company, a division of the British-Dutch Unilever conglomerate, that manufactures ice cream, frozen yogurt, sorbet, and ice cream novelty products, manufactured by Ben & Jerry's Homemade Holdings, Inc., headquartered in South Burlington, Vermont, United...
and Häagen-Dazs
Häagen-Dazs
Häagen-Dazs is a brand of ice cream, established by Jewish-Polish immigrants Reuben and Rose Mattus in the Bronx, New York, in 1961. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee, the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn, New York, on November 15, 1976...
and the local chain, Amorino.