If “Foodllovergirl = sweets” and “Summer = cold, icy treats” then what do you get? Gelato!  We headed over to Popbar in West Village for some of their Popgelato. They have been on my radar for a while, but haven’t really gotten around to visiting…until now!

The inside is pretty small, just enough room to gaze at their yummy creation, order, and sit if there is a seat available. They have a counter seat with three stools.

They make their pops everyday in-house, so they are nice and fresh. They have gelato, sorbet, yogurt pop, popwich. They also have few other items like shakes and Popacchino drinks.

With so many beautiful looking pops, the hardest part of this experience was choosing which pop to try. The pops go from around $3.75 to $5 each. And then, if you want to make it fancy, you can add $0.50 for dip, and $0.50 for topping. If you want your pop to become a popwich which is an ice cream sandwich, it is additional $0.50 as well. So, based on your selection, it can be somewhere around $4 – $6 each.

We chose Green Tea Popgelato and Pistachio Popgelato. Then moved onto the dipping and topping section for a real fun part to begin… When it comes to dipping, they have caramel dark chocolate, dark chocolate, milk chocolate, mint dark chocolate and white chocolate. Toppings have even more options such as almonds, coconut, hazelnuts, caramel corn, etc.

For the Green Tea Popgelato, I got a full dip (you can also do half dip) in milk chocolate, crushed waffle cone topping, and white chocolate drizzle. Watching the staff do the drizzle over my Popgelato was pure food porn…

And here is the creation number one! Chocolate Green Tea Crunch. As the drizzle was put on while the milk chocolate dip was still a bit runny, it became more of a marble design. But I didn’t really care how it looked compared to the photos they have on their screen or website, as it all taste the same to me.

And I really liked it! The Popgelato had a strong, deep, great flavor of green tea. You can see the bits of green tea concentrate in the gelato. I could tell it was made with REAL green tea instead of some strange “flavoring” since it had that unique bitterness to it. It went great with the chocolate, and waffle cone added that extra texture of fun crunch. I thought it was awesome!

For the Pistachio Popgelato, we went with full dip in white chocolate and pistachio topping. It is now Chocolate Covered Pistachio.

This one was nice too, good amount of chocolate, and again, you can see the pistachio bits in the gelato. Adding extra pistachio nuts on the surface made the flavor stronger, as it can be lessened by the flavor of chocolate. With the real pistachio nuts, it enhanced the pistachio flavor and added some crunch. It was a good, solid, high quality gelato creation.

We were lucky enough to get the counter seat, inside the cool AC. But even then, the Popgelatos started to melt. You do need to get those yummy goodness into your tummy quickly before you make a big mess. They do have napkins on the wall, so hopefully you won’t come out with gelato stain all over…

To help with controlling the dripping, they have a little cardboard drip catcher of sort on the bottom. It certainly helped me to be able to have my Popgelato without making a mess. And, it has a cute or funny saying on it, several different ones on each drip catcher. Mine said “So many dippings and poppings, so little time.” So true…

Another item we purchased was their Hot Chocolate on a Stick ($2.99). I got a Vanilla Chocolate, and my hubby got a Milk Chocolate. They also had in Dark Chocolate as well.

It is a pretty good size and solid. I guess you can eat it just as is, if you prefer to do that rather than making a hot chocolate. I wanted some hot chocolate to warm me up, in a middle of the Summer… My office is REALLY cold, guys. I have blanket, gloves and cardigan ready in my office.

Since my office is super cold, I decided to have the hot chocolate at work. It had simple and easy instruction on the back of the bag, and I followed it to make sure I make it correctly. I got a mug full of milk, and then…

…microwave on high for two minutes. Get the Hot Chocolate on a Stick ready for a hot bath of milk, and then…

…stir for one to two minutes until it dissolves in the milk. I feel like it tool longer than two minutes, or maybe my milk was not hot enough. I had to work at it to get them all resolved.

And then finally, I have done it! One hot chocolate coming up! It made the milk a bit creamy color, not mentioning its consistency as well. It was very rich, sweet, and chocolate-y. I actually had some lumps of half-melted chocolate on the bottom, so I added more milk and re-heated it. If all the chocolate was perfectly melted with the first cup, it would have been even stronger and richer, and possibly too sweet. I am glad that not all of my chocolate had melted, since I don’t like it when hot chocolate becomes overly sweet.

Overall, it was a fun visit, and it was interesting to watch how your own creation of Popgelato being made right in front of you. The staff who helped us was really nice and friendly. I hear some people say how expensive it is, but I don’t think paying around $5 for gelato is expensive. It is pretty reasonably priced, in my opinion. And, it is cool that you get add your own, unique touch to the gelato. Of course, you can make it as simple as possible and get a gelato without anything added to it. With so many flavors and options, it would be fun to go back and get more sweet goodness!

 

Popbar – 5 Carmine St, New York, NY 10014