When you find a place that serves both amazing gelato and amazing coffee, you tend to keep that place a secret. Well I am spilling the beans on Aroma di Roma , in Long Beach, Calif.
This cafe offers Italian gelato, a coffee bar, pastries, sandwiches and other mouth watering desserts. Gelato is Italian ice cream, which is made from milk instead of cream. Sorbet or sorbetto is made with water and is nondairy. While gelato or sorbetto is being mixed into its frozen state, air is not whipped into it (unlike it is with American ice cream), so you get a lot of flavor in small amounts.
I arrived at the cafe a little early, so there wasnt any gelato available yet. I order a single latte, which had a flower designed into the foam. Although I worked at a coffee shop for a few years, I never mastered the art of making designs in foam, so I appreciated my little rose bud until I mixed sugar into it and watched its demise. Aroma uses Lavazza espresso, which in my opinion is the best Italian coffee you can buy. The coffee was rich and the foam creamy; a perfect latte. This shop even combines the best of both worlds in Affogato al Caffe, which is gelato drowned in espresso.
With over 20 different flavors, including mango, chocolate, vanilla, pear, pomegranate, white chocolate raspberry and lemon, Aroma di Roma has something for everyone. Aroma is also getting ready for the holidays with gingerbread, peppermint, rum raisin and pumpkin spice gelato flavors.
I tried the spiced pear sorbetto and was blown away by the crisp burst of flavor. This sorbet is made from Asian pears and seasoned with cinnamon. It had a bright pear flavor and had a clean aftertaste. Next, I tried the gingerbread gelato, which was spicy and creamy.
I finally settled on the white chocolate raspberry gelato. I am a sucker for anything with raspberries, and this gelato was no disappointment. There was a bright ribbon of raspberry puree, which complemented the white chocolate gelato perfectly.
Aroma di Roma also offers a variety of gelato based desserts, including Flute Limoncello which contains lemon gelato swirled with limoncello. Another fabulous looking dessert was the Coppa Stracciatella, which had chocolate syrup, chocolate chip gelato, then topped with cocoa powder and hazelnuts.
I recommend checking out Aroma di Roma the next time you are in the Long Beach area. Whether you are looking for a great dessert or an amazing Americano, you wont be disappointed.
