Granita in Taormina: Where to Eat It and How to Order

What granita is and how it fits into a Sicilian breakfast

Granita is a semi-frozen mixture of water, sugar and fruit, worked as it freezes so it sets into soft, coarse crystals rather than a smooth solid block. In Sicily it is eaten almost always at breakfast, in a glass, sitting down, often paired with a sweet brioche that acts as a scoop and a mop. It is the morning ritual of the island rather than a dessert tacked onto lunch.

The commonly told history links it to the Arab period in Sicily, when a frozen drink similar to sorbet was developed from fruit juices or rose water. Treat that as the accepted origin story rather than a settled fact. What is not in doubt is the technique: the best versions are worked in several stages in a cold well so the water does not freeze into shards too large to eat comfortably.

Granita messinese, the style associated with Messina and the eastern coast, is the one you will meet in Taormina. The Sicilian breakfast of granita and brioche is the format to aim for here, and a good one will keep you going until a late lunch. If you want a full sit-down meal instead, the best restaurants in Taormina are covered separately.

Granita messinese and the flavours to try first

The classic flavours are almond, pistachio, lemon, coffee and mulberry, plus seasonal fruit such as peach and strawberry in summer. Almond is the benchmark: it should taste of toasted nuts, not marzipan, and at Bam Bar it is the flavour the owner says is most requested. Pistachio is the richer, more intense choice and the one first-time visitors tend to remember.

Bam Bar makes its granita with fresh fruit, which makes some flavours seasonal, and it lists a wide range of them. Ask which fruits are in that day. Request two flavours in one glass if you cannot decide; Sicilians routinely do.

Bam Bar in Taormina: what it is and what to order

Bam Bar is a small, colourfully decorated bar on a piazzetta just off the Corso, the main street through Taormina, and it opened in June 1996 after the Bambara family converted their electrical shop into a bar. The name comes from the family surname, Bambara. It draws a steady crowd and has long been popular with visiting celebrities, which is part of why the queue at peak times is what it is.

Order the almond, which the owner names as the most requested, or the pistachio, which the blog Fantasia in Cucina describes as made with Bronte pistachios. The pomegranate version is worth knowing about if you are in Taormina in September or October, when the owner says it is in season. A few flavours, including pistachio, are finished with a little milk for creaminess, a small departure from the purist water-and-fruit method.

Take the brioche warm or at least tepid and dip it into the melting edges rather than eating the two separately. The queue moves reasonably quickly in the blogger's experience, but go early in the morning if you want to keep waiting to a minimum. If you would rather learn to cook the island's food than just eat it, cooking classes in Taormina make a natural next morning.

Pistachio, almond and the flavours that divide people

Pistachio is the flavour most visitors come for, and it earns the fuss: dense, faintly salty, closer to a nut paste than a sorbet. Almond is the quieter, more traditional choice and the one locals tend to order. Coffee granita, sometimes with cream, is the breakfast of people who want their caffeine cold; it is intense and slightly bitter.

Fruit flavours behave differently from nut ones. Mulberry, peach and mandarin are bright and clean and melt faster, so drink them before they slump. Chocolate and ricotta versions lean towards dessert territory, and purists will tell you they do not count, but they are on the menus all the same. Try one nut flavour and one fruit flavour together and you will see the range the drink covers.

How to eat granita: with brioche col tuppo, with panna, or on its own

The default is granita in a glass, a brioche col tuppo on the side, and a spoon. Tear off a piece of the brioche, dip it into the granita, and eat it before the bread soaks through. The brioche is lightly sweet and citrus-scented, which is why it works with fruit flavours as well as nut ones.

Panna, fresh cream, can go on top, underneath or both, and it softens the sharper fruit flavours without hiding them. If you want the purest version, take it plain in a glass and skip the cream. Eating it on your feet is the one thing to avoid: it melts unevenly and you lose the texture that makes it worth ordering.

How a good granita is made and how to tell it apart

Real granita starts with water, sugar and fresh fruit or nuts, and is stirred repeatedly as it freezes so the ice stays fine rather than setting solid. Many bars now use prepared pastes and sachets instead, which gives a smoother, flatter result. The difference is visible in the glass before you taste it.

Watch how it melts. A properly made granita goes to water quickly at the edges while the centre stays frozen, and that is the sign of a batch worked by hand rather than poured from a base. A uniformly smooth, slowly softening block is the giveaway for the shortcut version.

Fresh fruit granita also tastes of the season: peaches in high summer, pomegranate in autumn, citrus in winter. If the flavour list looks identical in January and July, that tells you something about how it is made. Ask which fruits are in that day.

Granita at other points in the day

Breakfast is the proper time, but in Taormina's heat a granita also works as a mid-afternoon stop between the Corso and the gardens. The bars serving it are cafés, so the usual Italian rhythm applies: sit down and you pay for the table, stand at the counter and you pay less. Order and pay at the till first if the bar works that way, then hand the receipt to the person making your granita.

If the morning is already given over to granita and brioche and you want something savoury later, the best pizza in Taormina is the obvious next stop, and best gelato is the natural evening follow-on.

Granita first, then the rest of the day

Choose one nut flavour and one fruit flavour, take the brioche, sit down and eat it before it melts. Bam Bar is the Taormina bar the food press keeps naming, so it is the sensible first stop, and going early avoids the worst of the queue.

Wherever you order, use the melt test: fast at the edges, frozen at the centre means it was made properly. Then walk it off along the Corso and let the rest of the day start late.