Humankind figured out the wonders of flavored ice not long after we discovered beer.

Once we had beer and ice cream, we could tolerate living next to each other and civilizations started.

Now the little that we know of the early days of gelato (or literally, frozen, translated to English) is enough to tell us it was a lot different than what we understand it as today.

The birth of gelato in the forms and flavors we can begin to wrap our heads around in contemporary times dates back to the Renaissance and the Florentine court of Catherine de Medici, whose credited with introducing and promoting it to European high nobility

(although a Sicilian might dispute that origin story).

And that’s where things get a little tricky.

The Moors and Arabs both occupied Sicily for hundreds of years dating back to 875ad. Both brought with them the knowledge of a shaved ice dessert called sherbet. Sherbet is the precursor to both what we now call sorbet or sorbetto, and Sicily’s famous granita.

But are sorbets and granitas then gelatos? Technically, yes, but for the purpose of oversimplification and the risk of inflaming inter-Italian and global tensions,

we’re going with no.

Indian ice cream, Kulfi, traces its known history to the Mughal dynasty in Delhi ballpark 16th century, while the Ottomans invented Dondurma in the early 17th. While both are delicious, and both are frozen desserts made with milk and cream,

we’re not calling them gelatos either.

So what is gelato then?

We’re going to define it by contrasting it to American ice cream:

1. Gelato contains significantly less air than American ice cream

2. It is denser, richer and served warmer than American ice cream

3. It contains less fat than American ice cream

4. It’s freakin’ Italian!!!