Eiscafé Panciera, Eupen (BE)

Every few months I set off to Eupen, a city in the Belgian province of Liège (15 km from the German and Dutch borders) and combine the useful and enjoyable tasks of getting my hair cut, then getting an ice cream from Panciera, a lovely Italian ice cream shop located on the market square.

Ice cream is made freshly, on a daily basis by the owner of the shop Egidio Panciera, who is committed to making ice cream with the finest ingredients and without artificial colourings or preservatives.

Panciera ice cream shop in Eupen, Belgium

Panciera ice cream counter (front counter for “regular” ice cream)

Sign at the entrance of the ice cream café Panciera's sorbets are exclusively mde with fresh fruit, St Amand mineral water and sugar — Sign at the entrance of the ice cream café Panciera’s sorbets are exclusively mde with fresh fruit, St Amand mineral water and sugar

Try their gourmet flavours!

After a few visits at Panciera, I realised they have two ice cream counters: the counter at the back is where they keep a small selection of slightly more expensive gourmet flavours, made with exclusive ingredients such as Bronte pistachios, Sicily mandarins, calamansi, sea buckthorn, etc.

Premium ice cream flavours at Panciera (from the back counter)

The last time I went to Panciera, I sampled the calamansi-white chocolate-pink pepper ice cream – I feared the taste of pink pepper might be too dominant, but this was not the case. I enjoyed its lovely citrus taste. However I selected a scoop of “Mandarino gold” ice cream, made with mandarins from Sicily, and a scoop of pistachio ice cream, made with Bronte pistachios from Sicily. If you’re interested in knowing more about Bronte pistachios and how they grow, I recommend reading this (external) post about Italian delicacies.

mandarin, pistachio and vanilla ice cream — On the left: mandarin ice cream on top and pistachio ice cream below. On the right: “vanilla 1952” on top and pistachio below

I must say that Panciera’s premium Bronte pistachio ice cream is truly excellent: certainly one of the best I have tried! I also warmly recommend their doppio espresso ice cream.

The first time I walked past Panciera ice cream shop, it was as if they knew I would come by… A sign outside promoted the flavour of the day: yoghurt-cardamom-cinnamon. When you love cardamom as I do, you can’t just ignore such a sign!