Most vegan ice cream starts from a plant drink. Mistura’s starts from water, and that single choice is why its vegan counter is full of fruit rather than nuts.
Mistura Ice Cream is a Madrid ice cream maker with 6 shops in the centre that works one batch at a time, twenty litres each. The base is fresh milk, cream and sugars for some flavours and plain water for the vegan ones, which is why the vegan counter runs to fruit rather than nuts. The first shop opened in June 2013 on Calle de Augusto Figueroa.
How does Mistura make its ice cream and where are its shops? Mistura works one batch at a time, twenty litres each. The dairy base uses fresh milk, cream and sugars; the vegan base is water plus the fruit of the flavour. It runs 6 shops in central Madrid, the first opened in June 2013 on Calle de Augusto Figueroa.
Water carries fruit, milk carries nuts
The vegan question is usually answered with a label. Here it is answered with a recipe.
According to Mistura, the vegan base is created with water and the ingredients of each flavour — mango, grapefruit, passion fruit — and the production process is identical to the dairy one. No soya, oat or almond drink is involved at any point.
That has a visible consequence at the counter, and it is the reason the two ranges do not mirror each other:
| Base | What it is made from | What it carries well |
|---|---|---|
| Dairy | Fresh milk, cream and sugars | Pistachio, coconut, hazelnut, brownie |
| Vegan | Water and the fruit of the flavour | Mango, grapefruit, passion fruit |
Water holds a passion fruit sorbet cleanly. It does not hold a hazelnut cream the same way, because that flavour leans on the fat the dairy base supplies. So the vegan list is not a reduced copy of the dairy one — it is a different list.
Twenty litres at a time, in four steps
Batch size tells you more about an ice cream shop than any adjective, and twenty litres is small.
According to Mistura Ice Cream, its ice creams are made one at a time and from scratch, in twenty-litre batches, using traditional methods. The house describes four steps: build the base, add the ingredients of the flavour, let the mixture rest, then churn it cold at high speed until it sets.
The resting step is what the company credits for the texture, and it is also what rules out making more on demand. A batch is a batch, and it runs out.
The first shop opened, according to Mistura, in June 2013 on Calle de Augusto Figueroa, and there are 6 today. That is fewer than one new shop a year across 13 years, which is the pace a twenty-litre workshop allows.
Six counters, all inside the centre
Mistura concentrates rather than spreads. All six shops sit inside central Madrid, and two of them share a street.
| Shop | Address |
|---|---|
| Malasaña | Augusto Figueroa, 5 |
| Mercado de San Antón | Augusto Figueroa, 24 |
| Jacinto Benavente | Plaza del Ángel, 2 |
| Plaza Mayor | Ciudad Rodrigo, 6 |
| La Latina | Toledo, 71 |
| Goya | Goya, 50 |
One caution when counting. The company’s own history page, according to Mistura Ice Cream, mentions more than seven locations, while its list of open shops shows six. The list is the one to check before walking anywhere.
Two of those addresses use names that are not official at all. Malasaña and La Latina are daily-use names absent from the city’s administrative map, in Madrid’s official neighbourhoods. The Toledo 71 shop also falls inside the El Rastro area, which trades on Sundays from 9am to 3pm, in when El Rastro is open.
The rest of the city’s classics, each with its house and its hours, are in what to eat in Madrid.
Deliveries run through Glovo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, and orders can be collected at the counter. The shops also sell speciality coffee, waffles and milkshakes.
Six shops against thirteen
Madrid’s two most visible ice cream names in the centre run on opposite logics, and knowing which is which saves a detour.
Palazzo has thirteen shops and one workshop supplying all of them daily, so the product is identical everywhere, in the thirteen Palazzo shops. Mistura has six, all central, producing in twenty-litre batches.
The difference is not quality, it is design. One is built so there is always a counter near you; the other so the list keeps turning over. On a short trip the first crosses your path by itself and the second has to be looked for, which is the kind of decision the day-by-day split handles in three days in Madrid.
Frequently asked questions about Mistura ice cream
Is Mistura’s vegan ice cream dairy-free and nut-milk-free?
Both. According to Mistura, the vegan base is built from water plus the fruit of each flavour, such as mango, grapefruit or passion fruit, rather than from soya, oat or almond drink.
Why is Mistura’s vegan range mostly fruit?
Because water carries fruit better than it carries nuts. A water base holds a passion fruit sorbet cleanly, while a hazelnut cream needs the fat that the dairy base supplies through fresh milk and cream.
How many Mistura shops are there in Madrid?
Six, all inside the centre. Malasaña, the Mercado de San Antón, Jacinto Benavente, Plaza Mayor, La Latina and Goya. Two of the six stand on the same street, Calle de Augusto Figueroa.
Does Mistura deliver in Madrid?
Yes. The shops list Glovo, Just Eat and Uber Eats, and orders can also be collected at the counter. Mistura also sells speciality coffee, waffles and milkshakes alongside the ice cream.
Twenty litres a batch, two different bases, and six counters that all fit inside the centre.