MALGA GELATO, located in Noto-cho, Ishikawa Prefecture, is the gelato store of internationally renowned gelato artisan Taizo Shibano.
Actively incorporating high quality local ingredients, he creates gelato every day with a fusion of science and sensibility, with flavors that will thrill the senses.
The best gelato in the world
In Noto Town, located in the northern part of Ishikawa Prefecture’s Noto Peninsula, there is Malga Gelato, the store of gelato maestro Taizo Shibano, who in 2017 became the first Asian to win the world’s top gelato competition.
Mr. Shibano was born in Noto Town, Ishikawa Prefecture, and after graduating from Tokyo University of Agriculture with a bachelor’s degree in agriculture, he began his career in his family’s dairy farming business. He began making gelato on his own with the hope that people of all ages would appreciate the taste of local raw milk. Then, in 2000, he opened the “Malga Gelato Noto Main Store,” a gelato store directly operated by the dairy farm in Noto Town. Later, he began participating in gelato competitions in Italy, and came to the conclusion that there is a composition theory behind good gelato. Finally, when he went to the world competition of gelato in Italy in 2017, he became the first Asian to win the world’s top prize.
Science + Imagination for Amazing Taste
Gelato is made by repeatedly mixing milk, sugar, eggs, cream, nuts, chocolate, fresh fruit, and other ingredients, then cooling and hardening the mixture while allowing it to air dry. It is a popular sweet that is simple to make and can be enjoyed at home. However, in the professional world, the ratio of moisture content, solid content, and air content in a delicious gelato is scientifically determined. Within these fixed rules, they use their imagination to create original products by figuring out what ingredients to combine. This is where the gelato maestros show their skills. Knowing this, Mr. Shibano translated thick Italian technical books and studied them. After learning the basics in this way and using his own imagination to create flavors, he won the “Best Italian Craftsman” award two years in a row (2015 and 2016), the Gelato Japan Champion (2015), and in 2017, the overall winner at the Sherbeth Festival 2017 (Palermo, Italy), and the World Champion. He was the overall winner and World Champion.
Mr. Shibano’s gelato is the result of his solid knowledge based on science and his free and flexible imagination. The resulting gelato continues to surprise people in ways they could never have imagined.
A wide variety of flavorful flavors
Mr. Shibano’s gelato is made from local raw milk grown in Noto, a region rich in nature, and other carefully selected local ingredients. His goal is to create gelato that can be felt with all five senses. The company places particular importance on aroma, and while bringing out the natural flavor of the ingredients, it also makes full use of several spices, flowers, and extracts to create a complex aroma.
Three of the most popular flavors of Malga Gelato are “Grand Pistachio,” “Noto Salt Pistachio and Orange Vanilla Mascarpone,” and “Pineapple, Apple, and Celery,” Shibano’s creation that won him the world’s top prize.
The “Grand Pistachio” is a mixture of local Okunoto milk and an original pistachio paste roasted at the store. The gentle taste of the milk and the rich pistachio paste are well-balanced, making it an exquisite treat. The “Mascarpone and Orange Vanilla” is a mascarpone gelato with the aroma of orange and vanilla beans, accented with the sourness of berry sauce, creating a rich yet refreshing taste. The “Pineapple-Apple-Celery” is made with cold-pressed ingredients plus lime juice and mint. It is a gem that will shock you with the aroma you feel when you taste its freshness. In addition to these popular flavors, other sweets that make use of local Ishikawa ingredients, such as Kaga-bo hojicha and Kanazawa sweet potato, are also available online for purchase.
Mr. Shibano says that the secret of his impressively delicious gelato is to “knead in a story. The combination of the producer’s attention to the ingredients and the technique used to bring them out in the gelato touches the heartstrings of the person who eats it. In this way, Ishikawa Prefecture offers gelato that no one has ever tasted before.
The key to making gelato that impresses people is to “knead in a story. In other words, we must bring out the rich flavors of the ingredients, which are the result of the producer’s persistence, through the taste of the gelato. We believe that only by doing this can we touch the heartstrings of those who taste our products.
