Pop-up shop: Belicio Cheatday in Koopgoot, Rotterdam
Last weekend, I visited the pop-up ice cream shop, Belicio Cheatday, which has opened at the very end of the Koopgoot (aka Beurstraverse), an underground shopping street in Rotterdam.
The weather was really good. Sunny and warm, but still with a cool breeze. No wonder, it got really busy in the ice cream shop. There are a couple of tables inside the shop, but also some on the outdoor terrace, where people who are shopping can gawk at your beautiful ice cream creation.
There are many ways to create your perfect cheat meal. First, you choose the base (ice cream cone, ice cream cup, a crepe (thin pancake) cone, a bubble waffle (famous Hong Kong treat), a doughnut, a cookie sandwich, or a waffle lolly pop), which comes with 2 toppings of your choice. The second step is choosing from 24 different kinds of ice cream flavors (€1.25 per scoop) and raw cookie dough flavors (€2.50 per scoop). At step three, you can add whipped cream (€0.50), extra topping (€0.50), and a sauce (€0.50).
Besides that, you can also order coffee, tea, hot chocolate, a smoothie (strawberry, mango, and forest fruit), or a freakshake (oreo shake, rainbow shake, and caramel fudge shake.
From left to right and top to bottom: strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, mango sorbet, triple chocolate, marshmallow, cotton candy, Greek yogurt & honey, yogurt forest fruit, and stracciatella.
From left to right and top to bottom: pistachio, walnut, raspberry sorbet, macarons, rum raisin, chocolate & cookies, vanilla, mint chocolate, frozen yogurt, coffee, banana, white chocolate, and sgroppino lemon.
It was difficult to choose the flavors that we wanted, but we ended up with an ice cream cone filled with a scoop of mint chocolate and a scoop of marshmallow with blueberries and a candy cane as the two toppings and an ice cream cone filled with a scoop of yogurt forest fruit and a scoop of pistachio with strawberries and white chocolate sticks as the two toppings.
As you can tell from the first picture, the ice cream cone on the left was mine. The ice cream cone itself was crunchy and tasty, but it is a bit thin and fragile. The mint chocolate ice cream on the bottom was a bit of a let down, as there was barely any chocolate in the scoop that I got and the mint flavor was not that nice. The marshmallow ice cream with bright yellow and pink color mixed together was a bit chemical, but the flavor was not bad. I kind of liked the candy flavor. The blueberries were nice (not too sour and still crispy) and the candy cane has a nice sweet-sour fruit flavor. I also tasted a bit of the yogurt forest fruit and pistachio ice cream. The yogurt forest fruit has a nice tartness and great fruit flavor. The pistachio ice cream is not the best that I have tried, but I have tried a lot of pistachio ice cream, as it is one of my favorite ice cream flavors.
All the ice cream flavors are from Ola Carte D’Or and they didn't taste like fresh, daily made ice cream from gelato shops, it was a bit dense and not very creamy.
During the opening days, there was a 1+1 deal for Facebook fans, so I only paid €3.50 for two ice cream cones with two scoops of ice cream and two toppings. It would be a bit on the expensive side, if I paid full price. You are basically forced to start with 2 toppings, as the minimum starting rate is €1 for an ice cream cone or ice cream cup, including two toppings (worth €0.50 each). I saw a lot of people just getting a ice cream cone with one scoop of ice cream without any toppings. I think they didn't see that two toppings were included for free, like I almost did, or there wasn't enough space on the smaller ice cream cone to add things to without dropping everywhere and creating a mess. It could also be that they just didn't like the toppings. In that case, you would be better off going to an Italian gelato shop instead, as it would cost you €1 less. But the special bases that you can pick from to add the ice cream to, cannot be found at many places, so that makes it interesting enough to pay the store a visit.
The weather was really good. Sunny and warm, but still with a cool breeze. No wonder, it got really busy in the ice cream shop. There are a couple of tables inside the shop, but also some on the outdoor terrace, where people who are shopping can gawk at your beautiful ice cream creation.
There are many ways to create your perfect cheat meal. First, you choose the base (ice cream cone, ice cream cup, a crepe (thin pancake) cone, a bubble waffle (famous Hong Kong treat), a doughnut, a cookie sandwich, or a waffle lolly pop), which comes with 2 toppings of your choice. The second step is choosing from 24 different kinds of ice cream flavors (€1.25 per scoop) and raw cookie dough flavors (€2.50 per scoop). At step three, you can add whipped cream (€0.50), extra topping (€0.50), and a sauce (€0.50).
Besides that, you can also order coffee, tea, hot chocolate, a smoothie (strawberry, mango, and forest fruit), or a freakshake (oreo shake, rainbow shake, and caramel fudge shake.
At the day I went, there were 22 ice cream flavors to choose from and no raw cookie dough flavors were available.
From left to right and top to bottom: strawberry, strawberry cheesecake, mango sorbet, triple chocolate, marshmallow, cotton candy, Greek yogurt & honey, yogurt forest fruit, and stracciatella.
From left to right and top to bottom: pistachio, walnut, raspberry sorbet, macarons, rum raisin, chocolate & cookies, vanilla, mint chocolate, frozen yogurt, coffee, banana, white chocolate, and sgroppino lemon.
It was difficult to choose the flavors that we wanted, but we ended up with an ice cream cone filled with a scoop of mint chocolate and a scoop of marshmallow with blueberries and a candy cane as the two toppings and an ice cream cone filled with a scoop of yogurt forest fruit and a scoop of pistachio with strawberries and white chocolate sticks as the two toppings.
As you can tell from the first picture, the ice cream cone on the left was mine. The ice cream cone itself was crunchy and tasty, but it is a bit thin and fragile. The mint chocolate ice cream on the bottom was a bit of a let down, as there was barely any chocolate in the scoop that I got and the mint flavor was not that nice. The marshmallow ice cream with bright yellow and pink color mixed together was a bit chemical, but the flavor was not bad. I kind of liked the candy flavor. The blueberries were nice (not too sour and still crispy) and the candy cane has a nice sweet-sour fruit flavor. I also tasted a bit of the yogurt forest fruit and pistachio ice cream. The yogurt forest fruit has a nice tartness and great fruit flavor. The pistachio ice cream is not the best that I have tried, but I have tried a lot of pistachio ice cream, as it is one of my favorite ice cream flavors.
All the ice cream flavors are from Ola Carte D’Or and they didn't taste like fresh, daily made ice cream from gelato shops, it was a bit dense and not very creamy.
During the opening days, there was a 1+1 deal for Facebook fans, so I only paid €3.50 for two ice cream cones with two scoops of ice cream and two toppings. It would be a bit on the expensive side, if I paid full price. You are basically forced to start with 2 toppings, as the minimum starting rate is €1 for an ice cream cone or ice cream cup, including two toppings (worth €0.50 each). I saw a lot of people just getting a ice cream cone with one scoop of ice cream without any toppings. I think they didn't see that two toppings were included for free, like I almost did, or there wasn't enough space on the smaller ice cream cone to add things to without dropping everywhere and creating a mess. It could also be that they just didn't like the toppings. In that case, you would be better off going to an Italian gelato shop instead, as it would cost you €1 less. But the special bases that you can pick from to add the ice cream to, cannot be found at many places, so that makes it interesting enough to pay the store a visit.
