The calafate (Berberis microphylla) is the emblematic dark berry of Patagonia; legend holds that eating it ensures a return. It is made into jam, syrup, and sorbet.
Spoon up calafate sorbet and it is intensely purple, cold, and tart-sweet, the dark barberry flavour somewhere between blackcurrant and blueberry but wilder and sharper. Bite: bracing and fruity, a deep berry tartness rounded by just enough sugar, cleansing and vivid. The taste of the Patagonian wild — and, the legend promises, a guarantee you'll be back.
Cooking the berries into a sweetened syrup and sieving out skins and seeds gives a smooth base; the sugar lowers the freezing point so the sorbet stays scoopable rather than rock-hard, and churning (or whisking while freezing) keeps ice crystals fine. Lemon sharpens and preserves the vivid colour and tartness.
Variations
As a granita. With a splash of pisco. As jam. With cream (ice cream). With other Patagonian berries. As a coulis.
On the Palate
Where Calafate Sorbet sits in the Patagonian flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 6How it's made
8 steps · 25 min active + 3 hours 35 min waiting
- 110 min
Simmer calafate berries (and blueberries) with sugar and a little water.
- 28 min
Cook until the berries burst and the liquid turns deep purple and syrupy.
Watch outSimmer until the berries burst and the syrup turns deep purple and coats the spoon — under-cooked and the colour and flavour stay thin.
- 34 min
Press through a sieve to remove skins and seeds.
- 45 min
Stir in lemon juice and cool the syrup completely.
- 530 min
Churn in an ice-cream maker until thick (or freeze, whisking every 30 min).
Watch outChurn (or whisk every half hour) so no coarse crystals form — that's the whole difference between smooth sorbet and a purple ice block.
- 6155 min
Freeze until firm but scoopable.
- 72 min
Scoop into chilled glasses.
- 82 min
Serve with a few whole berries.
