22degrees PREbiotic Gelato in Redondo Beach
When you taste the spicy chocolate jalapeno prebiotic gelato, you will first savour the rich chocolate flavor, followed by sweet touch of cinnamon, and as you finish the spicy taste of jalapeno pops deep in your throat. Although this flavor roller-coaster sounds appealing, what may be questionable is the prebiotic part. But after trying the many diverse flavors at 22 degrees in Redondo Beach, you might not believe that theses gelatos with layers of flavor can be both tasty and healthy.
Owner, Kaity Tom’s gelato endeavor started from her love of sweets. At the beginning of her gelato making process she thought that making the different flavors would be simple. However, it took her six years to discover the complex chemistry within each dimension of flavor. Tom would throw out around 100 pounds of gelato a week until the batch was perfect. It took about 187 tries to find just the right ingredients for the vanilla gelato. And although it took a great deal of time, and little over half a decade to perfect the prebiotic gelato ingredients, time still plays an important role in production. All the gelatos are made from scratch and take about 3-4 days to make.
22 degrees makes the nation’s only prebiotic gelato. What is important to know about prebiotics is that they are natural ingredients found in many vegetables such as broccoli and onions. Not only is it an excellent source of fiber, but also can help protect your immune system. In fact, you would need to eat about 25 onions to get your daily amount of fiber or you could simply have ¼ scoop of gelato instead. And this isn’t the next health craze, either. Prebiotics have been studied in over 180 clinical studies.
Tom’s goal was to create a healthy dessert that “doesn’t taste healthy, but taste good.” And although folks were hesitant of this new healthy dessert, people have started to open up more to the concept of having a fiber enriched diet. 22 degrees is so confident in their flavors and ingredients that you can even try the gelato hot. In the future Tom hopes to add a pea protein to the gelato, and looks forward to having people enjoy a healthier and tastier dessert with their gelatos.
