Kulfi, a beloved Indian sweet treat, recently received global recognition thanks to Taste Atlas. The popular food and travel guide released a list of the 50 Best Frozen Desserts in the World, as per its July 2025 rankings. Kulfi was featured not once, but twice on the list in different ways. Kulfi (alone) was placed 8th overall. It's a significant achievement for an Indian frozen dessert to make it to the top 10. Taste Atlas ranked the kulfi-falooda combo separately at the 31st position. After all, one can argue that the addition of falooda changes the dessert completely.
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Here's how Taste Atlas described this Indian dessert: "Kulfi is a traditional ice cream made with slowly simmered whole milk. Although the long-simmering process results in a loss of volume, it makes up for it with a delicious, nutty, caramelised flavour. The ice cream is characterised by its unusual, conical shape, a result of using traditional, special molds with tight-fitting lids. Kulfi is usually flavoured with traditional Indian ingredients such as pistachio, rose water, and saffron, although some cooks prefer to flavour it with fruits such as berries." It also clarified that kulfi is denser than regular ice creams because of the way in which it is prepared. As for Kulfi Falooda, the guide noted, "The whole dessert is often elevated with various additions such as sweet basil seeds, jelly, or rose water, and it is frequently garnished with crushed nuts."
Taste Atlas' current list of the world's best frozen desserts was topped by Dondurma from Turkey, Frozen Custard from the USA and Gelato Al Pistacchio from Italy. See the rest of the entries below:
In the past, Taste Atlas has spotlighted various sweet as well as savoury dishes from India. Before this, it ranked three Indian delicacies among the world's 50 best breakfast dishes. More were featured among the rankings from 51 to 100. Misal Pav from Maharashtra was ranked 18th, Paratha (as a broad category) occupied the 23rd position and Delhi's beloved Chole Bhature was ranked 32nd overall.
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