The Copenhagen Report is a great place to start any artistic exploration of the Danish capital. Tim Anderson is one of Denmark's most prolific bloggers, with an archive well worth flicking through - The Guardian
Time to catch up on a few episodes I haven't posted largely owing to the summer holiday season. Episode #59 of MyDenmarkTV.com is the last episode before we launched our new format. The great summer theme of ice cream in Copenhagen was the topic. Enjoy!
I just love the spirit of Copenhagen. I really do. Even on a cloudy, not terribly warm day with a bit of rain, there's always plenty to make you smile and forget the weather. Like having an ice cream down at Nyhavn. After all the sun will shine again...
On pretty much any hot and sunny day in Copenhagen (in fact, it doesn't really need to be that hot, just sunny), at certain hours of the day you'll find queues like it was a supermarket twenty-five years ago in Eastern Europe suffering a food shortage.
Alas, it's not a shortage of food that drives the crowds toward Paradis in Copenhagen, rather it's a shortage of comparably tasty ice cream to be found anywhere else in the city. Italian style ice cream. Really f#%*ing tasty ice cream.*
How good would I say Paradis ice cream is?
Well, in the office where I've been working the past couple months Ben and Jerry's, one of the most popular American style ice creams, is stocked in the freezer for staff to help themselves to. There's a lot of it and many flavours all there for the taking. And it's free. It's also rather tasty. But it's just not tasty in the way Paradis ice cream is.
Ben and Jerry's ice cream has that artificial sweet kind of taste that Americans (and lover's of American products) go for. So even though I can eat all the Ben and Jerry's I want at work, I instead find myself occasionally opting to pay a few kroner for a hit of Paradis after lunch - it's just around the corner, after all. Because Paradis sells their own homemade Italian style ice cream and, even for free, Ben and Jerry's is no match for that.
At this point, there are several Paradis outlets around Copenhagen - basically one in each part of the city. The first that opened was in Nørrebro at Sankt Hans Torv a few years back, the next a couple years ago in Vesterbro and Amager, the latest ones just opened last month in the centre (on Købmagergade near Nørreport Station) and in Østerbro.
On a sunny summer day, lengthy queues can be found at all of them. And for good reason.
Paradis ice cream lovers...
learning about the joys of Paradis ice cream
*Note: the author has not received any favours from Paradis in relation to the promotion of Paradis ice cream on this blog. However, he would welcome such favours - for example, free Paradis ice cream for the next year - and does feel they would be an appropriate compensation for his wholehearted and unconditional endorsement of the Paradis brand and associated products. He can be contacted via email, address above.