It has been a couple of weeks since we shared our guide to the best local ice cream brands in the Middle East. And you know what? Our Instagram went slightly feral.

Apparently, several very important names were missing. There were comments. There were recommendations. There was the distinct sense that we had personally wronged a number of frozen-dessert enthusiasts across the GCC.

We listened. More importantly, we agreed: there is no need to postpone Part 2 because there is no such thing as too much ice cream. So, here are eight more Middle East ice cream brands, selected largely from your recommendations and united by small batches, regional ingredients and a general refusal to settle for basic vanilla.

Mina Creamery is tucked inside MiZa in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Port, where founders Rihab Al Gurg and Anant Singh use ice cream as a rather convincing excuse to talk about memory, place and regional produce.

The bases are made from scratch, while ingredients such as UAE-grown figs, Hatta honey and local dairy help give the menu a sense of geography. The flavours rotate regularly, so emotional attachment is risky. Previous combinations have included olive oil with za’atar, salted saffron with halwa, orange blossom baklava and karak chai with toasted biscuits.

It is the sort of artisan ice cream the Middle East does particularly well: technically serious, culturally specific and still perfectly happy to be eaten from a cone while standing outside.

Mama Booza began with a mother, a kitchen and a recipe that was never written down. Years later, a craving in London produced an important question: if the world could turn practically anything into gelato, why had nobody properly transformed the desserts of a Levantine childhood into ice cream?

The answer is now slow-churned in Dubai. Mama Booza takes familiar sweets and rebuilds them in frozen form, with the dense, elastic texture associated with traditional Arabic booza.

Ashta combines cream, mastic, rose water and orange blossom, while Lazy Cake folds pieces of chocolate biscuit cake into chocolate ice cream. Halawa Dibs brings together carob molasses and sesame-pistachio halawa. It is nostalgia, but with better packaging and no relative insisting that you take another portion.

Among the growing number of homegrown ice cream brands in MENA, Mama Booza is a particularly clear example of how memory can become a modern product without losing its accent.

Before opening Scoop Creamery, Alya Al-Ammari studied chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and worked as an analytical chemist in the Gulf. Then she made the extremely reasonable decision to redirect all that scientific knowledge towards gelato.

After experimenting at home and training at Carpigiani Gelato University in Bologna, Al-Ammari opened Scoop Creamery in Bahrain in 2024. Its gelato is prepared daily in small batches, with flavours inspired by local tastes and a line-up that regularly includes dairy-free, plant-based and allergen-friendly choices.

The result sits somewhere between laboratory precision and dessert-induced happiness. This is one of those cases where the phrase “carefully formulated” sounds far more appealing when it ends in a scoop.

Five Degrees was founded by five Bahraini women and named after minus five degrees Celsius, identified by the team as the ideal temperature for ice cream. Finally, a piece of science we can all use.

The brand started at local markets in 2018 before establishing itself in Al Janabiyah. Everything is handmade from scratch, with a menu that moves between classics and less restrained creations. Plain Jane is its vanilla-bean option, Honey I’m Comb combines Madagascan vanilla with honeycomb, while the Mini Brownies Sammies place chocolate ice cream between brownie cookies because sometimes architecture really does improve lives.

Five Degrees also releases seasonal creations, including kunafa-based specials. It is another reason Bahrain deserves considerably more space in conversations about independent ice cream shops in the GCC.

Florencia Chaldu grew up in Argentina, where small neighbourhood shops and freshly made ice cream formed part of everyday life. After travelling and developing her craft, she brought that sensibility to Bahrain through Florencia Ice Cream.

The boutique gelateria applies Italian techniques to locally produced milk and cream, with every batch made from scratch using natural ingredients. The range includes Sicilian pistachio, Madagascar vanilla, Italian stracciatella, amarena cherry and Chocolate Rock, alongside Bonballs: small, chocolate-coated ice cream bites that remove the exhausting burden of choosing between chocolate and gelato.

Florencia represents a recurring theme among contemporary gelato brands in the Middle East: European technique doesn't need to arrive as an imported franchise. It can be absorbed, reworked and made part of the region’s own dessert culture.

Doha-based Kaï specialises in handcrafted, small-batch ice cream, often appearing through pop-ups and limited collaborations rather than behaving like a conventional scoop shop.

The flavours lean local, seasonal and playful. Fresh rutab dates have appeared alongside combinations such as stracciatella with berries and brownies. Availability can depend on the current pop-up or drop, which turns buying ice cream into something closer to tracking a very delicious but elusive cultural event.

That limited-release approach also says something about food trends across the GCC. The new generation of dessert brands doesn't always need a permanent row of freezers and a neon sign. Sometimes an Instagram account, a strong idea and a WhatsApp number are enough to start a cult.

HAPI is an all-day diner and ice cream shop in Al Khazzan Park, opposite City Walk. You can have breakfast, grilled cheese, burgers and bone broth there, but we are discussing ice cream, so let's maintain focus.

Its frozen desserts are handcrafted without stabilisers, preservatives or colourants. The selection ranges from yoghurt, honeycomb and sea salt to blueberry yoghurt with orange blossom, hazelnut milk chocolate, salted caramel brownie and a rotation of fruit sorbets. There are also ice cream sandwiches, because a cone isn't always structurally ambitious enough.

HAPI may not be a traditional gelateria, but it belongs in any discussion of artisan gelato shops in Dubai, and the wider independent frozen-dessert scene connecting those cities. The menu captures the current appetite for recognisable ingredients, small-batch production and desserts that can describe themselves as “clean” while still containing chocolate fudge.

Etna Artisan Gelato makes its gelato from scratch in Riyadh using fresh, natural ingredients and traditional Italian methods. The classics are all present — Sicilian pistachio, dark chocolate and salted caramel — but the more interesting part of the menu looks closer to home.

Saudi coffee, local dates, Taif rose and seasonal mangoes from Jazan have all entered the cabinet. These aren't decorative regional references added for the sake of a themed menu. They connect the gelato to specific ingredients, agricultural regions and everyday flavours from Saudi Arabia.

Etna is a strong example of how artisan ice cream is growing in the Middle East: not by copying Italy indefinitely, but by using Italian technique as a starting point for something locally recognisable.

The line between traditional and modern frozen desserts in MENA is becoming increasingly flexible. Ashta, mastic, halawa, dates, saffron, kunafa, karak and Arabic coffee now sit beside stracciatella, chocolate brownie and Sicilian pistachio without anybody needing to organise a formal introduction.

That is how famous ice cream flavours in Arab countries evolve. Some remain close to traditional booza; others borrow from childhood cakes, local fruit, coffee rituals or the pastry counter. The most interesting makers understand that “local” isn't an aesthetic involving compulsory rose petals. It is a relationship with ingredients, memories and the city where the product was created.

We won't declare any single one the best ice cream in the Middle East, mostly because that would require an irresponsible amount of fieldwork and potentially several arguments. But together, these brands show that regional dessert culture in the Middle East is becoming more inventive, more independent and much harder to fit into one freezer.

And yes, based on the state of our Instagram comments, there may eventually need to be a Part 3.