Dex2rose

A few weeks ago on a lazy Sunday K and I went to Dex2rose to try what they had to offer. They are a nitrogen gelato place located on Little Bourke in the city. It is the textbook Melbourne style hang out, it's off a small street in a lane way, then when you walk in, it's a cool modern warehouse convert feel.

Personally I am a big fan of gelato made with the nitrogen process as it has smaller ice crystals within the body of the gelato and it leads to a softer and creamy texture in the body, so when the owner Jesse invited me along to try their offering, I couldn't decline the offer.

First thing off the menu we tried was "The Original Mr Grey", this was a earl grey tea flavoured gelato laced with hazelnut chocolate throughout the body of the gelato. Beautiful aroma but still hits that chocolate spot.

Next was "Orange is the new Orange. This has cardomom (third most expensive spice in the world) that leaves a subtle smoky aroma to orange blossom gelato then topped with a zesty lemon caramel. For me the hero was the lemon caramel and I wish there was more of it in the gelato, but K seemed to think it was fine just the way it was.

We gave the gelatos a break and moved on to try their drinks offering. Nitrobrew coffees is one of those specialty offering to those who crave more a caffeine hit over a sugar rush. It is one of the very few places in Australia that offer this, it a a cold brew cooled/charged with nitrogen and serves from a beer tap. The coffee itself comes with a bit of a head like you would expect to see in beer. The actual coffee was very full bodies with apple and cinnamon infused into the coffee to give it a different feel from your typical cold brews. They offer you the option of syrup and milk so you can play around to have it the way you like your coffee. Personally I liked it best black with syrup, that way I found that it bought out the apple flavour in it. K and I played around with milk, and syrup. I found when you added milk, it dulled down the apple but highlighted the cinnamon.

After the coffee we moved onto their cold pressed juice. One thing I noticed straight away, was their cold pressed wasn't based on the usual 'healthy' flavour combination but just good old fruit flavours. I love watermelon juice, so it was an easy decision for me. Cold press watermelon bought out the intensity of the watermelon which was perfect for the warm Melbourne day that it was.

We moved back to the gelato afterwards and tried the "Rockkaido" which was a rockmelon and Hokkaido millk gelato and topped with raspberry cream. The milk and rockmelon worked wonders, the raspberry added a nice touch and was good for visiual but you won't notice it too much if it wasn't there. This was all about that rockmelon flavour, I found the rockmelon part to be stand out,

Lastly we tried the "White Dragon", this was an oolong tea and white grapes gelato. Not a combination I have seen before but I loved it. This was my favourite out of everything I tried. I am a real sucker for tea flavoured/scented things and this hit the spot and together with the sweetness and texture in the grapes, it was a nice creamy taste that has a small chewy bite from the frrozen grapes. It was topped with coconut rosewater cream which was unusual and delicious. The dairy free cream was something that took me by surprised and I enjoyed every bit of it.

Overall 16.5/20 I think this definitely ups the gelato game in Melbourne. The creation of unconventional flavours, lane way location and appreciation for coffee makes this place 'so Melbourne'. I am sure with Jesse's passion for gelato, there will be heaps more exciting flavours to come from this place and I know it will be place that I will be frequenting after dinner a lot more now.