Caramel with Sea Salt: The real story about why it's not Burnt Sugar and Star Anise

The creative process is always at work, here at Madisono's. We love trying out new and different flavor combinations and testing them out on our *usually grateful* family and friends. Sometimes we start with one flavor combination and end up with a completely different one. Such is the case with one of our most beloved flavors, Caramel and Sea Salt.

Would you believe that this flavor actually started as burnt sugar with star anise? After some initial experimentation, Matt decided to make some caramel from the burnt sugar by adding cream to the hot mix. After the steam cleared, he poured the caramel ribbons into the vanilla base and added the sea salt to enhance the buttery flavors. After his first flavor tester (his mother-in-law) called and begged for more after trying the one pint, he figured he was on to something. Conversely, his kids wouldn’t touch the star anise version, so that was shelved for further exporation.

Introducing The Madisono Tartufo!

We are very excited to be introducing our newest line of gelato deliciousness: The Madisono Tartufo!

"That's great Matt, we love Madisono's gelato but what the heck is a tartufo?"

We thought you'd never ask! Tartufo means 'truffle' in Italian. The truffle a small blackish mushroom that is dug from the ground and highly prized in the culinary world. The sweet truffle confection was named so because of it's visual likeness to the truffle mushroom.

The Madisono's Tartufo is our own creative expression inspired by truffles. We start with a nugget of rich chocolate ganache, surround it with Madisono's gelato and drizzle more chocolate on the outside. We've been working on our recipes and combinations for almost a year now and after many, many trials and errors *patting full bellies* we have come up with a frozen treat we hope you love as much as we do!

One of the best parts about the Madisono Tartufo is that it is portable, which means you will have a chance to try one wherever you see the Madisono's Cart, and at Madison's Market at Findlay Market in Over The Rhine, Cincinnati.

Our current flavors are Dark Chocolate Orange, Malted Chocolate, Mint Chip and Caramel with Sea Salt but you can be sure that we will be creating more flavors as we go. We just can't help ourselves!

Seeing Squatchy

While we at Madisono's are very serious about our gelato and sorbet creations, we also really enjoy having fun while we do it. Noah and I listen to SomaFM (Indie Pop Rocks) while we work, we banter back and forth about production and flavors and generally have a great time in the plant. One of our favorite topics to discuss is Sasquatch; not because we believe it exists but because we love a good folklore. We are fascinated in particular by the people who track Sasquatch and claim sightings in the forests. So Sasquatch has lovingly become part of Madisono's lore, because it's just good fun. We imagine Sasquatch holding a pint of Madisono's gelato while he walks through the forest. We've even had sightings here at the plant. Luckily, we were able to capture the shot in time...

If you want to follow Madisono's Squatchy shots and add some of your own, use #MadSquatchy.

Madisono's is getting a new look!

Here is Gina doing some photography of our products at Via Vite restaurant.

We are so excited to be working with some of Cincinnati's most talented creatives as we update our look and get some long awaited photography of our products. Gina Weathersby of KiwiStreet Studios and 513{eats} is doing some incredible photography of our gelato, sorbets, Mad*Pops and Tartufos. Lisa Ballard has been incredible helping us develop our marketing and branding materials and lending her illustrations to our campaign. And Eric Hintz (with sound guy Zach Mueller) who are creating a promotional video for us.

Here is Eric shooting video of gelato production.

If you're an Instagram fan, follow our handle at MadisonosGelato or #madisonos to see the progress.

Madisono's frozen treats available at Findlay Market!

You know you can always pick up a pint of Madiono's Gelato and Sorbet at Madison's Market at Findlay Market in Over-The-Rhine, Cincinnati. But NOW you can get your pints to take home AND eat some Madisono's treats while you're shopping.

Starting this weekend, our Madisono's Gelato Cart will be offering cups of your favorite flavors of gelato and sorbet, Mad*Pops with bright fruity flavors, and our newest addition, the Madisono's Tartufo. Stop by today if you're out and about, and keep looking for the cart to pop up at your favorite events around Cincinnati.

One Night Twelve Kitchens

Here is a lovely lady enjoying a mini Tartufo at Madisono's table.

Here is Jean Robert deCavel and team prepping his dish.

Madisono's was pleased to participate in the sold out One Night Twelve Kitchens fundraiser this past Sunday, April 21, 2013. One Night Twelve Kitchens is the largest fundraiser for student scholarships at Midwest Culinary Institute. This is our third year joining in with more than 20 of Cincinnati's top restaurants that treats guests to an incredible dinner along with tours of the 12 test kitchens at the Midwest Culinary Institute, to watch their dinner being prepared.

We offered a miniature version of our newest frozen creation, the Madisono's Tartufo. What is a Tartufo, you ask? Our tartufos are Madisono's gelato, covered with melt-in-your-mouth chocolate and a chocolate ganache center. We've been working on these for some time, and I would not be lying to say that we are super excited to get these into your hands. They are delicious!

The typical Madisono's Tartufo is about the size of a cupcake, but since we thought it unfair to tempt guests into filling up before dinner, these are a miniature version. Here are a few pictures showing the process.

Those are frozen balls of caramello gelato, getting ready to be dressed in chocolate. *Hand modeling by Noah.

Here are the finished tartufos, with chocolate and brûléed (note correct accents!) sugar.

For several years I have been exploring the various malted beverage drinks offered by many different companies through out the world.  Jungle Jim's is a great source for these drinks and so are small ethnic markets.  These drinks are basically the wort used in making beer without the fermentation process.  In Germany it is often referred to as Kinderbier or Malzbier.  You might have seen the Goya Malta or India Malta, have you ever tried them?  I have to say that you either like it or you don't.  Remember the first time you tried Guiness?  
      This Spring we have introduced a new flavor to the line up and it is called Vanilla Malt.  My first step was to visit Cincinnati's premier beer supply shop, Listermann Brewing Company.  When you open the door your nose is treated to one of the most beautiful sweet aromas of yeast, malt and home brew.  There is a tasting station in the front room and around the corner there is a room filled with everything you need to make great beer and wine.  I used to home brew back in the day and seeing all of the hardware took me back to the good ole days of exploding bottles and strong beer that most everyone thought was crap.  We started off with a selection of different malt extracts and went back to the shop to begin the science.  We ran a few batches and I have to admit that we were all very pleased with each one.  There is a deep malt profile to the finished gelato that we had never tasted before.  Powdered malt will never achieve the complex flavors from the real stuff.  The extract is so thick it is hard to pour.  Imagine cold molasses.  We settled on a combination of the extracts for our recipe (sorry it's a secret) and began producing them into pints.  We are using our Madagascar vanilla gelato base which is made from scratch, with whole vanilla beans and a vat pasteurizer.  We process in ten quart batches each time for the ultimate small batch taste.   Vanilla Malt is available at the following stores.
Remke Bigg's Hyde Park
Carl's Deli Hyde Park
Ferrari's Little Italy  Madeira
Madison's Findlay Market
McCracken Market Miami University
Wyoming Meats
Luigi's Old World Market Mason
Keegan's Seafood Anderson
Jungle Jim's Eastgate