Pepino

When you see an ice cream popsicle coated in chocolate you immediately think: “Pinguino”. This was the original name of the lucky ice cream that has been passed down through generations. The story began at the end of the nineteenth century, created by the hands of Neapolitan craftsman Domenico Pepino, in the elegant setting of the capital of Savoy.

The company history began in 1884 when Domenico Pepino opened his first “Vera Gelateria Artigiana” in Turin, which quickly conquered the heart of the Turinese at the time. At the beginning of the 1900s, four coats of arms of the royal house honored Pepino as one of the official suppliers. It was at this time that the Neapolitan ice cream maker had to sell his shop along with his secret recipes to famous entrepreneurs in the area.

This was how modernity met the taste of an artisanal ice cream shop. Significant changes were made and the main ice cream parlor was opened in Piazza Carignano, dry ice was introduced to transport products, and the slogan “Pepino ice cream arrives everywhere” was coined. But, it wasn’t until 1939 that the first ice cream popsicle coated in chocolate was introduced: the Pinguino.

Producing the same recipe for decades, today you can still taste it ‘everywhere’  in Turin, as well as in Piazza Carignano, breathing the nostalgic atmosphere between crimson velvet and brushwood boiseries. The ice cream popsicle covered with chocolate remains the flagship product of Gelateria Pepino, which is offered in different flavors (Caffè, Pistacchio, Gianduja, Mint, Hazelnut, Violet) and is joined by a whole series of cold pastries and traditional ice creams.

Today, however, this ice cream shop has become so much more. A meeting place where one can converse while enjoying a coffee, a delicious lunch break, or an aperitif in a pleasant setting. All in the name of freshness.

So from now on, every time you eat an ice cream popsicle, you will know where it was born, who invented it, and where to go to taste the original one. Right here from Pepino, where it all began.