Good news, bad news is a phrase we use a lot around here. (I think anyone else who runs a small business knows what we are talking about.)

In this case, the good news is that summer is almost here. Summer for us means all of the delicious, local summer fruit we can get our hands on. We are just a week or so away from fresh peaches, apricots, plums, pluots, nectarines, and then blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries. We make all of them into amazing sorbetto using only fresh fruit, sugar and water. We never add fruit flavorings or flavor boosters like many of our competitors.

OK, now for the bad news. Summer also means the end to the too-short cherry season. We are only going to have our amazing fresh cherry flavors for a week or so more. If you love cherries you had better come down here fast.

So many of the ingredients for our gelato come from local sources. We are very proud of that. Local means fresher, higher quality, genuine ingredients.

Some of our competitors proudly proclaim that their ingredients are imported from Italy. Don’t be fooled. That means that the ingredients are cans of goo and bags of powder. Imported ingredients means canned, boxed, put on a pallet, stuck on a container ship, put on a train and driven only to wait on a shelf.

Which do you prefer? Cherries from a family owned California farm or cherry syrup? Freshly pulled espresso from Mr Espresso beans or coffee goo? Pavel’s yogurt or powdered yogurt flavoring? Strawberries from a family farm in Watsonville or jellied strawberry paste?

We make our gelato the same way we have been making it for nearly six years now, by hand. In fact, sometimes it takes several hands.

Our gelato is made in 5 liter tubs. We make between one and six tubs at a time. It is a slow way of doing it but it is the right way. We don’t just flip a switch and a machine makes the gelato. All of our flavors are hand-crafted.

Our careful and deliberate approach to making our gelato is just one of the reasons our gelato can be found in so many places.

Here are a few new places you can find our delicious, hand-crafted gelato:

In Rohnert Park our gelato is featured at the new store Del Secco’s Gelato & Sweets. This family-owned candy palace serves 36 of or flavors everyday. Find out more at
www.gelatoandsweets.com

We are also serving our all natural gelato in two more Whole Foods Markets. The Sacramento Whole Foods Market on Arden Way and the San Ramon Whole Foods Market just off of Bollinger Canyon Rd. both dish up our gelato flavors in cups or take-home containers.

Coming soon to Sacramento, our gelato will be filling a showcase at the new pizzeria/Vespa dealer called Hot Italian. Check it out at: www.HOTITALIAN.net

If you can’t beat ‘em - one-up them.

Pinkberry, Kiwiberry, Iceberry, Copycatberry, Cloneberry, etc, are making frozen yogurt a fad for the second time. Remember all of the yogurt places in the late eighties?

We decided to one-up all of the fro-yo copycats by making a unique yogurt gelato. We also decided to do it the way we make most of our flavors, from a local ingredient. Our Yogurt Gelato is made with Pavel’s Original Russian Yogurt.

Pavel’s has been making Russian style yogurt since the early 70’s from recipes developed by Pavel Malcoff around the turn of the last century. It was originally sold in mason jars in a single San Francisco grocery store. Now you can find Pavel’s all over the west and it still comes from right down the road in Oakland.

The Primary is old news; Club Naia members voted in droves for our fifth annual Valentine’s Day promotion to help us select the twenty-two (22!) flavors of chocolate gelato available at each of our five gelaterias:

• Bacio
• Bouche Provencal
• Cacao Bean



• Casanova
• Chocolate Coconut
• Chocolate Covered Cherry
• Chocolate Orange
• Chocolate Peanut Butter
• Cioccolat Mortale
• Dark Chocolate
• Donatello
• Keoke Coffee
• Milk Chocolate
• Milo
• Mint Chocolate
• Nutella
• Romeo and Juliet
• SB 41%
• S’mores Italiano
• Stracciatella
• White Chocolate
• Xocolatl

Donatello and its running mate Ferrero Rochere easily came out on top so we decided on Donatello; a light chocolate gelato with crushed Ferrero Rochere candies swirled throughout. Similarly there were an amazing amount of “write-in” ballots for Chocolate Orange and Nutella, so we were sure not to miss those.

Thus, starting on Tuesday, February 12th, we will feature an entire showcase with chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate gelati! Our other showcase will still feature some guest favorite gelato flavors as well as fresh fruit sorbetto and soy.

Thanks for all who participated and “got out the vote!” For those readers still not a member of Club Naia, come by any of our gelaterias to sign up!

Last night was Whole Foods Market’s Gala evening for the newest Market in the Bay Area, Napa. We were proud to be opening our third Whole Foods Market, and spread our all-natural gelato good cheer into the North Bay!

It was a crazy evening as we nearly sold out of all eighteen flavors as folks came for first tastes (and then seconds … and in some cases … thirds) from start to close. We heard comments like “We heard we have to come here!” and “How come the line for gelato is so long??”

Between Whole Foods Market’s commitment to food quality, and Napa’s fine culinary and artisanal heritage, this gorgeous store is a perfect fit for Gelateria Naia and our gelato. Hope to see you there soon.

You may have heard that the Bay Area is critically short on blood, particularly O-negative blood. We were planning our Walnut Creek “Pint for a Pint” blood drive for next month but decided to act quickly and do a flash blood drive in Berkeley this week:

On Saturday January 12th, Gelateria Naia Berkeley will be holding a blood drive with the American Red Cross. The promotion is called “A Pint for a Pint”. Volunteers who donate a pint of blood will receive a free pint of our all-natural, artisan-made gelato. This event has special meaning to us, since Bobby, one of our cofounders, is an anesthesiologist by trade and feels particularly strong about the importance of blood drives. (It’s Bobby’s daughter’s whose name is Naia, and who was born at the same time as our first store in Berkeley.)

A free pint of gelato is nothing compared to a pint of donated blood, but our previous blood drives have been a huge success! Our two previous blood drives in Berkeley collected the maximum amount of blood the Red Cross bus was able to collect. Due to the popularity of previous blood drives and of the pint promotion, our “Pint for a Pint” blood drive will be by appointment only. You may set up an appointment by visiting the store or calling us at (510) 883-1568.

We heard on the radio that they were starting to delay surgery for patients because of the lack of blood, so please consider it today… and get a pint of gelato for your help!

Update: Thanks for all of your help! Between our help from friends at KGO and KCBS, we managed to fill all of the slots and get blood to those who need it.