How much does a brioche with ice cream cost at the ice cream shop?

A social media brawl highlighted how a price of €5 was deemed excessive by consumers in southern Italy, especially Sicilians, much to the chagrin of the rest of the country, accustomed to similar, if not higher, prices for what could effectively be considered a complete meal, rather than a treat. The controversy escalated to the point where Dario Pistorio, president of Fipe Confcommercio Catania, intervened.

Five euros is a fair price

"People talk about expensive gelato, but without offering a complete and objective picture. Criticism always focuses on artisanal gelato, never on the industrial version. A paradox worth highlighting," Pistorio begins, emphasizing: "Packaged gelato from well-known brands weighs around 70 grams and sells for between €2.50 and €3.50. A homemade brioche filled with gelato weighs between 230 and 280 grams: more than double, sometimes almost triple." Easy to calculate, then. €5 for a brioche with gelato, hopefully homemade at that, seems more than fair.

The president doesn't spare a dig at his fellow Sicilians: "In Sicily, we've been accustomed to low prices for decades because we've had low wages. An economy that has never truly valued labor has created the illusion that everything must be cheap. Today, while we're finally trying to guarantee decent wages, regular contributions, and trained workers, we're shocked if a handcrafted product is sold at its true value."

But it's not just a matter of perception. According to FIPE, years of widespread illegality have distorted prices downward: "a phenomenon that for years has doped the market with unrealistic prices, without considering personnel, safety, contributions, and regulations. Those who operate legally cannot and must not compete with those who do not bear the same costs."

The food cost of a homemade brioche (with ice cream)

Pistorio's comparison between industry and artisanship speaks for itself, and we can only agree with his stance on pricing. But we wouldn't be ourselves if we hadn't listened to the artisans' voices, to gain some clarity on the high price of brioche, and the responses were bound to be interesting. The first thing to consider is the generous amount of brioche with ice cream: if you're one of those who think it's simply a delicious alternative to a cone and should therefore be priced accordingly, you're wrong. A brioche uses between 350 and 400 grams of ice cream (Pistorio was clearly sparing), unlike a three-flavored cup, which contains less than half that amount.

Let's do some calculations, averaging the prices of the many ice cream parlors we've surveyed and toured over the past few months to compile our annual ranking: a place that offers its brioche for €4.50 at the counter and €5 at the table usually sells empty brioches for €1.20: that's €3.30 for more than three hundred grams of ice cream, and considering that a medium cup costs around €3.50 and a one-kilo tub between €24 and €30, these ice cream makers certainly aren't getting a bargain.

And producing one, always on average among the artisan ice cream makers we interviewed, costs around 65-70 cents.

On top of this, many people in the South make brioche at home, which means flour, eggs, butter, the lengthy preparation required for leavened products, and investments in machinery and personnel. This situation is unsustainable when selling it for €5, let alone the €3.50 some are hoping for. But if this brioche is so problematic for artisans, what drives them to continue offering it? Giovanna Musumeci, master gelato maker at the Santo Musumeci gelateria in Randazzo, explains it to us with a quip, admitting she hasn't even counted her finances: "In Sicily, brioche is a necessity."

Meanwhile, "tourists rightly find it cheap," comments Maurizio Liparoti, of the eponymous ice cream shop in Trapani and Erice. He buys it and, he claims, selling it for €4.50 once filled with ice cream barely covers the cost.

Think about it, the next time you think 5 euros is too much.