"Freeze" with 3D ice cream popsicles featuring Hanoi landmarks.

Chef Ly Hai Hoang Tan (founder of Gelato Stick) entered the Italian ice cream market in 2018, but it was only in the last three years that he ventured into creating unique artistic ice cream designs. As someone who loves Italian culture and gelato, he dedicated considerable time and effort to researching different flavors and ice cream-making methods.

“During my business trips and travels to Thailand and China, I noticed many interesting aspects of their tourism industry. One notable example is the ice cream featuring landmarks, which they sell at relatively high prices. Realizing that Hanoi also has many historical sites, I decided to create ice cream featuring the capital's landmarks,” Chef Hoang Tan shared.

Having moved from Hue to the capital more than a decade ago to build his career, Hoang Tan has a special affection for Hanoi. To give a twist to traditional Italian gelato, Hoang Tan has created ice cream popsicles with new designs featuring landmarks in Hanoi.

The ice cream bars have been "dressed up" with a variety of 3D designs such as: the Grand Cathedral, One Pillar Pagoda, Turtle Tower, O Quan Chuong Gate, Khue Van Cac Pavilion, the Grand Opera House, and Dong Xuan Market. Recently, the brand has added three more landmarks to its collection of scenic spots: Thang Long Imperial Citadel, Hang Dau Waterworks, and Long Bien Bridge.

Speaking with Travellive, Chef Hoang Tan said: “I think this is a stroke of luck and an opportunity for me and my brand to develop a line of ice cream featuring Hanoi landmarks. I hope that my ice cream featuring these landmarks can contribute to making Hanoi's culinary landscape even richer and more artistic.”

Initially, when starting to create 3D ice cream molds, Mr. Hoang Tan spent time directly surveying the locations to take photos for sketching, referencing photos online, and drawing 3D models. From there, he formed the mold and used the mold to test the details and adjust the drawing to accurately match the details of the real location. This process was repeated many times until a complete and satisfactory ice cream mold was achieved. The time from conceptualization to the actual ice cream can take up to three months.

"Initially, the details of the landmarks were unclear, causing customers to mistake them or not recognize them at all. However, if they were too big, they wouldn't be able to eat them all, and if they were too small, the details wouldn't be clear. Therefore, when making the ice cream cones, we need to adjust the weight so that customers don't feel like they're eating too much or too little. We also have to adjust the details of the real-life versions according to the weight, so we had to make many attempts to get it right," said Hoang Tan.

While retaining the rich, less-sweet flavor and smooth texture of Italian gelato, the brand has created over 20 diverse flavors such as chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, taro, green tea, mint, raspberry, green apple, etc. Notably, some flavors also feature ingredients sourced from various regions of Vietnam by Mr. Hoang Tan.

The next challenge was finding a way to preserve the ice cream, as it melts very easily. The brand researched a method to preserve the ice cream for delivery to customers within the city within two hours by using heat-insulating wraps and gel ice packs.

Upon its launch, the collection of 3D ice creams featuring Hanoi's famous landmarks quickly won the hearts of diners and became a sensation on social media. More than just a visually appealing and colorful dessert, these 3D ice creams, priced at only 20,000 VND each, also contribute to promoting the image of Hanoi, a city with a thousand years of cultural heritage, to both domestic and international tourists.

When customers hold a 3D ice cream cone in their hands, they are delighted to see the places they frequent now miniaturized on the ice cream. Moreover, some tourists from neighboring and distant provinces are amazed by the ice cream, expressing their wish that their home provinces also have ice cream cones featuring landmarks.

Sharing his future plans, Chef Hoang Tan expressed: “Currently, the brand is facing some difficulties as it doesn't have physical stores in many locations, which limits customer access to our products. This year, I will try to actively cooperate with or find locations where we can open ice cream stands so customers can easily buy ice cream and take photos.”

Phuong Mai is a reporter for Travellive Magazine in Hanoi.

Phuong Mai