Ruben Alvarez
Nothing like experience to figure out what you want in life. Years and even decades of perfecting a profession are what guide the human being until he finds his reason for being, and that of the pastry chef and ice cream maker Rubén Álvarez began as an official supplier to the restaurants of some of the best chefs in our country . "I had never had the opportunity to make and control the product that arrives directly to the customer. The final treatment had never been part of my way of working and I had always had that concern from production", explains the man from Madrid who Just released Esneu, its own brand of ice cream (originating in Novelda , Alicante) now on sale online.
Pumpkin, yogurt and ginger
The way of seeing Álvarez's life through Esneu is by being very purist As far as flavors are concerned, trying to replicate as much as possible the products that give life to his creations. "We like to start from classic flavors which are now even difficult to find", he tells us. Like the hazelnut or the Marcona almonds with pieces of nougat from Alicante . "It's like eating a piece of nougat, the taste is the same. The only difference is that we lower the sweetness," he explains.
The milk with which they are made comes from The Barranquillo, in Torre Pacheco, Murcia , which supplies them with milk fresh pasteurized from Friesian cows , whose high casein content gives the ice cream a special texture.
"In the case of nougat it is Coloma Garcia , a company that has passed from generation to generation, in Jijona , which provides us. For us it is the best nougat, without a doubt", he confesses to us. Instead, it is The plane , a company from Alicante, which provides the spices of its raspberry and hibiscus flower sorbet and is a french butter the one that gives life to caramel with fleur de sel. To give honesty to your Lemon cream , the job falls on the lemon trees that grow next to some vineyards in Novelda, owned by his mother-in-law (Rosendo) and his uncle (Rafael). "We also have the medjoul date with almond , which is a tribute to the El Granaíno restaurant; or the one of chocolate from Santo Domingo de Cacao Barry , which is most faithful to the flavor of the cocoa fruit; or the one of tahitian vanilla , a flavor that is not very easy to find in Spain", he adds.
raspberry and hibiscus flower
Is Esneu just another brand of ice cream? Absolutely . already at first sight its packaging stands out from the rest attracting attention with a demure image but with personality. "Everything was designed for us Made Studio, in Valencia . And the graphic design did it to us Zoo Studio, in Barcelona ", says Álvarez. That on the one hand, because when it comes time to slide the spoon through one of Esneu's ice creams, it is when the doors of a different enjoyment open, one that has nothing to do with the one offered by the ice creams that are in the supermarket right now.Those who make up the frozen section of any of them don't even go near the flavors so pure and direct that make up the Esneu catalog and that, as an added value, are sold online to arrive directly at home. And look, because distributed anywhere in the peninsula.
"We want the product itself to stand out and give it the importance it deserves. mark the flavors . The ice cream industry could do whatever it wanted and we wanted, but because of the niche market they are not interested in. What we are looking for is take care of and find the best raw material , which takes time and has its cost", adds Álvarez of a task that does not present the slightest inconvenience to him.
This enthusiasm is what has led him to devise different collaborations with names as recognized as that of the chef Ricard Camarena , with pumpkin ice cream (always present and varying in cooking in the chef's desserts) roasted with yogurt sorbet and candied ginger. "The pumpkins we use are the same ones that Ricard grows with farmer Toni Misiano in his orchard," Rubén tells us about these special editions that tell the stories behind the chefs and the producers who supply them.
For his part, the ice cream that he made as a tribute to Paco Morales and his Andalusian cuisine is made with ras el hanout , a mixture of twenty-seven spices –such as cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, turmeric, cumin and rose petals– with nougat from Alicante. Making the leap to confectionery Rubén dared last Christmas with an ice cream chocolate and orange panettone along with Daniel Alvarez. With David López of the Local de Así restaurant, in Murcia , it was a smooth Cieza Roasted Peach Ice Cream , which sold out not long after seeing the light.
Although our favorite so far, as good coffee growers that we are, is the one that was born from the hand of Edwin Chavera of Coffee Designer , also owner of the specialty cafeteria Saltvage Coffee , in Barcelona. "We made an ice cream with coffee from Finca La Ermita after Edwin taught us the cold brew technique, a cold preparation that maintains the properties and nutrients of the coffee," says Álvarez.
Ruben Alvarez
Spring appears and summer threatens . And it is precisely these types of projects that make us smile when we start planning those homemade feasts with which we will entertain ours . With them, we will celebrate so many stories that have left their mark on a project that gives even more value to the craftsmanship of a product as adored as ice cream.