Ola Uruguay Real Estate and Investments

In my five years in Uruguay, I have become an avid fan of my adopted homeland’s ice cream. For me, there is no more pleasant sensation than to approach a heladeria (ice cream shop) on a sweltering hot day and anticipate the plethora of flavors just waiting to be tried.

Although, as in other countries, there is ice cream that you can purchase by the tub in the supermarket, and there are chocolate covered ice cream sticks that are sold on hot summer days by venders (who seem to have studied a particular high pitched and attention grabbing way to call “helados”), I have chosen to limit the scope of my studies to “artisanal” ice cream.

I love to join the hordes of other ice cream lovers in the shade of a heladeria’s canopy with their teetering towers of ice cream emerging out of their waffle cones. Strangely, here in this land, an ice cream cone is not really licked too much. Rather it is served with an accompanying tiny plastic scoop that helps you maintain dignity and poise as you use the spoon to smooth off the ice cream as it melts.

Ice cream usually comes in one, two, or three scoops, or you can choose a house specialty such as a copa melba or another such creation. That is usually a volcano of several types of ice cream with a dizzying amount of sweet syrup magma running down its sides. I prefer a more purist approach of just two flavors, so as not to confuse my taste buds. Two scoops of ice cream in a freshly made waffle cone costs roughly $2.

Some locations offer a tenedor libre or buffet of ice cream where you can choose your own flavors, and condiment them with all kinds of nuts, sweets, syrups, and sprinkles. These delights are then weighed, and you pay by the gram.

What I like most about artisanal ice cream is that it is produced in small batches, and made from natural ingredients, such as real cream and fruit. The only exception is that artificially sweetened flavors are made for dieters and diabetics. Typically, there are two categories of ice cream: those made with milk and those made with water. You can choose a strawberry flavor, for example, that is water based, or “frutilla a la pana” that is made with cream.

Even though you may be disillusioned with the menus in local restaurants as they always offer the same choices, an Uruguayan ice cream parlor will have a more exotic menu with interesting combinations and flavors. For example, in Punta del Este and in the Prado neighborhood of Montevideo, there is a sprightly ice cream parlor called, “Pecas”, or “Freckles”, that offers chocolate ice cream with candied orange pieces that is worth walking from anywhere in the world to try. In the late days of summer, the classic ice cream parlor in Piriapolis called, “El Faro, or “The Light House,” serves an ice cream that simulates the popular chaja cake—vanilla ice cream with peach slices and meringue crumbs. Delicious. In Colonia, the “Arc de Iris” or “Rainbow” ice cream shop has a banana split flavor that mixes fresh banana, chocolate syrup, and dulce de leche in a vanilla base. Could there be anything better?

So, I encourage you to begin the search for your favorite ice cream flavor or combination of flavors in Uruguay. The first step in assessing the quality of a new ice cream location is to try the dulce de leche or caramel flavor. This is by far the most popular and common flavor, which is often combined with nuts, chocolate chips, cookie crumbs, or more pure dulce de leche. But as a new investigator, you must try it in its purest form. After that, there’s a world of flavors and condiments for you to enjoy. As they say, ice cream is good for the soul.