Ever since my sister introduced me to home coffee roasting and Rave Coffee‘s green coffee beans, I’ve been going to them ever seen for all my coffee needs, particularly fresh roasted beans when I’m not roasting my own, and the occasional Perfect Flat White. Rave Coffee is in an unlikely place, slightly hidden amongst a row of small businesses in the Cirencester industrial estate. In recent weeks, I’ve noticed another unlikely suspect appear in this same row of shops: a gelateria called Dolcetti. The doors have always been closed, but today, they were open, so I decided to go in.

Thh first thing I saw when I walked through Dolcetti’s mysterious doors was a big window looking into the room where the gelato is made (read: ice cream maker envy on overdrive). I then made my way to the ice cream case. I was in between errands, so gelato wasn’t really a practical purchase, but the owner, Rob Gibson, happily told me all about his new business and let me (or rather, insisted that I) try almost every flavour in the case. 

Rob is serious about gelato, and even in these early days he’s done an impressive job at creating a niche, high-end product that defies the “local” cliche by doing it like he really means it. All of the dairy comes from a private farm up the road, and there’s even a “Rave Mocha” flavour using Rave Coffee from next door. Best of all, this is a dream realised (a dream Rob’s had for the last 20 years) and the enthusiasm shows, both in his words, and in his inventive flavours like “cherry yogurt” and “Swiss”, a combo of pecans and white chocolate. He also let me try his rum raisin gelato, made extra special by soaking the raisins for weeks in a very high quality rum (he wouldn’t say WHICH type of rum – “I won’t give away all my secrets” – gotta respect that!).

As a sorbet enthusiast, I was particularly inspired by the raspberry sorbet which had the most amazing colour and I loved that he kept the seeds from the berries in the sorbet. Also special was the lemon sorbet, crystal white and with the cleanest flavour. “Sicilian lemons”, Rob tells me: figures.

Dolcetti, Stirling Works, Love Lane, Cirencester GL7 1YG
tel. 01285 641333 / info@dolcetti.net

[Update: While at Dolcetti, I gave Rob my card and urged him to get on Twitter and Facebook (as you do when you do what I do). Yesterday I received this uber nice message from him: “Many thanks for all your tweets and fantastic photos. You were a breath of fresh air and just what I needed to get the twitter account open. My wife has been pushing me, but with so many other things to do, I have just not been able to get to this important part of marketing. I have however due to your visit now got going, and look forward to seeing what happens.” So please give them a follow: @GelatoDolcetti.]