Food and drink blog

Goodness it’s hot, isn’t it? I was strolling back from the beach yesterday with a friend and, as is our custom, we decided to stop for ice-cream on the way back. Normally, this would have been one of the Argentinean-run gelaterias near the top of Joan de Borbo, but today was different. Vioko (Passeig de Joan De Borbo 55, 932 210 652, www.vioko.es) had appeared like a sleek, white ship in the night and stolen all the attention.

If you happen past it you could be forgiven for thinking it’s the lobby to a hot new designer bar or lounge. On closer inspection you realise it’s one of those minimalist designer chocolate shops that are all the rage these days. It’s only when you get truly close that you realise there’s ice-cream too, and you have to physically enter to cotton on to the fact that theirs are no ordinary flavours. Neither are they weird, shock-you-into-submission, molecular gastronomy flavours. But they are gourmet in the truest sense of the word: delicately aromatic violet or rose for example, more robust grapefruit and jasmine, or ginger, building up to deluxe ones like Vioko chocolate – a blend of bitter cocoa, plump raisins and chunks of orange peel, or coffee studded with sugared almonds. A medium sized tub, generously piled with two different flavours will set you back €3.60. Now that’s what I call a summer of love. Bon profit!