In the year it celebrates its 75th anniversary, Santini joins forces with an iconic brand, which is also steeped in history and tradition, and is celebrating its 140th anniversary. Yes, we are talking about Bordallo Pinheiro, a prominent Portuguese artist from the 19th century. The thematic cups from the new Carmen collection, with reliefs and colours alluding to strawberries, lemons, grapes and oranges, are filled with ice cream of the respective flavour and will be available for sale in all Santini stores until the end of the year. They can be purchased individually for 18 euros, or for 16 euros each when buying four.

Carmen Collection© Santini

But let's go back to the beginning. It was 1943 when Attilio Santini Mosena brought the flavour of Italian ice cream to Portugal, which had been present in the family since his great-grandfather's generation. Later, in 1949, he opened the first store on Tamariz beach, in Estoril. The rest is history. 75 years later, with 12 more stores, the recipe remains untouched, even after it passed into the hands of Eduardo Santini, the founder's grandson, in 1997. The family is, in fact, one of the pillars of the business. And there have already been six generations, even after the Bottons acquired 50% of the company in 2009. It was in that year, when it was celebrating its 60th anniversary, that Filipe de Botton took over half of the Santini brand. The management was taken over by his son Martim and, later, by his daughter Marta, who has been working side by side with Eduardo Santini since 2015. Read Also: This menu has nachos and hamburgers to save your stomach after hours (Portuguese version) In this ice cream parlour, visitors can follow the entire process, starting with the arrival of the raw material, the washing, the manual peeling of the fruit, the mixing of the recipe and ending with the placing in the containers that are sent to the stores. The cone is the only part of the ice cream that is not made in this factory, but the recipe for the wafer is the same as in 1949 and they continue to be rolled by hand, one by one.

© Santini

In a statement, Santini says that "the quality of the ingredients is above all in the demand for the choice of fresh fruit, bought mainly from local producers, of natural ingredients, without the addition of pulps, preservatives or dyes, even if this implies that some flavours can only be available seasonally". Read Also: This is the sensational hamburger for cheese lovers (especially cheddar) (Portuguese version)