Divine cream meets Italian technique, and the only true scratch made ice cream in Austin.
People get so amazed that it tastes like watermelon, and I’m like yeah, that’s because it is
We love seeing how people’s backgrounds blend into food. Matthew Lee started in technology and then said to the heck with tech with all of its little bits and bites. He was sick of reinventing the wheel just to be ahead of the curve. “None of those apps will exist in six months. Facebook will even be gone in ten years. This, you can actually make. You can touch it, feel, throw, smell and eat it. You can’t with technology. You can use real ingredients with real products and at the end of the day you can see people’s reactions.” When Lee came to Teo after Italy it was after hanging out with chefs all of his life. Lee eventually trained in Florence. From his travels and gelato mentoring he learned that the better the ingredients, the sweeter the ending. “If you have bad ingredients you can only be so good. It’s amazing how many ingredients are used to create one flavor. People get so amazed that it tastes like watermelon, and I’m like yeah, that’s because it is.” Now he uses that technology background for the math of ice cream. To account for the water (even in fruit) and the acidity, influences the entire product and turns Teo into the art and science of ice cream.
Out of 500 products that got submitted at HEB’s best awards Teo took the number one spot. People believed that they had something. Then the top 60 gelato makers were brought together in Chicago and Teo was number one yet again. What they did to make it consistently brilliant was by having three flavors and constantly tasting them. The science and ingredients conquered the contest yet again. Knowing when to add which ingredient to where the texture forms one perfect moment.
Making Their Own Base
How do you compete with Amy’s?
The big difference is that Teo make their base. The other ice cream shops buy theirs. “For me it’s like they’re saying I make the best chicken soup but the stock is Swanson’s.” I contest that at least Lick uses Mill-King, but Jerry says “It isn’t even grass-fed. I was one of the first to use Mill-King six years ago and the quality is so inconsistent. We use Texas farms and try to source locally for all ingredients.” I was annoyingly shocked at this news. Then folded to Google confirming that Mill-King does not claim grass-fed. Because they make their base Teo can make anything, even bacon ice cream.
Lee would even say ice cream shots have too much fat in their products and so they have to add more sugar. It’s like adding butter to a baked potato and you keep adding bacon and cheese until you can’t taste the potato.
Words can only speak so loudly so we go in and taste the ice cream.
The real pecans. The true flavors. Everything is creamy, pure and layered with flavor. Like a small bite dish from Uchi.
It’s real. Go taste ice cream’s reality.
A Lick of Bliss 