Our favourite British ice cream makers
Wherever possible, buy British. That’s the lovefood mantra, and we even extend it to our iced summertime snacks. So here are our favourite regional ice cream makers, starting with one in Hampshire…
Jude’s, Hampshire
Bored of banking, Theo Mezger swopped the City for cream and milk in 2002, deciding to concentrate all his efforts on a homemade ice cream business. He developed every recipe by himself at his farmhouse home in Hampshire, and sold his first batch of ice cream to the local pub in Christmas 2002. It was an overwhelming success - “as soon as people try our ice cream, they’re hooked,” Theo told me. Ever since then the business has boomed – so much so that they had to move production from the family farm to bigger premises in Twyford, and instead of Theo’s freezer they now own a 800L an hour freezer, and a 12,000L an hour pasteuriser. The team has won countless Great Taste Awards.
Theo’s family soon joined the team (including inspiration and wife Jude, plus sons Alex and Chow) and now they boast clients including Marco Pierre White, Gordon Ramsay, Raymond Blanc and James Martin. There are about 20 flavours in production at any one time – my personal favourites are ‘salted caramel’, ‘strawberry tease’, and ‘ginger spice’ – and wherever possible local ingredients such as elderflower, apple juice and mint are used.
“There were masses of mediocre ice cream in this country, so I knew from the offset that we had to pitch for excellence,” said Theo. “I may have set the company up on my own, just with these two hands, but ever since the family joined in, the business has really flourished. I leave most of it in their capable hands nowadays, although I do still stick my oar in every now and then!”
What we also like about Jude’s is the fact that they give 10% of their profits away to charity, including local causes such as the village hall and childrens’ hospital, and international charities like Action Against Hunger. Plus they do a lot to try and limit the environmental impact of their ice cream factory, including recycling all cardboard, plastic and metal; re-using thousands of litres of water a day via an ‘adiabatic water cooler’; and using incoming cold milk to cool down outgoing hot mix.
Price: around £4.69 for a 500ml tub
Cream o' Galloway, Scotland
It may be chilly up there, but the Scots still make great ice cream. Cream o' Galloway in Castle Douglas started making ice cream in the early 1990s, taking the decision then and there only to use high quality, natural ingredients - 'the kind of things you'd find in your kitchen cupboard at home,' they say on their website.
Their ice creams are luxuriously rich and are all made with their own organic milk - flavours include 'caramel shortbread', 'whisky, honey and oatmeal', and 'chocolate to die for'.
Interestingly, in 2008 the company introduced 'Made Fair', a range of Fairtrade and organic ice creams including 'caffe latte' and 'strawberries and cream' flavours.
You can make a whole day trip out of Cream o' Galloway ice creams - they've a visitor centre, slides, pedal karts, bikes to hire, an adventure playground, indoor play areas, a nature trail, wildlife spotting, designated dog walks, pond dipping in the summer, and, of course, tours of the farm and creamery, complete with ice cream tasting. Find out more here.
Price: £6.50 to enter the farm and eat ice cream
Purbeck, Devon
Just like Jude’s, Purbeck also uses local milk and double cream (this time from Devon) and sources local flavourings wherever possible. Managers Hazel and Pete Hartle set up shop in 1988 and make all their ice cream on the family farm.
Hazel and Pete turned their attentions towards ice cream after the introduction of milk quotas, which made it impossible to maintain their dairy farm as a viable enterprise. “We had to come up with something pretty fast to do with our lovely milk, that didn’t result in penalties for over production, or tread on anyone’s toes by embarking on a venture which was already being done locally,” said Hazel.
“Along with the occasional pub crawl we had developed quite a passion for ‘ice cream crawls’ and it seemed a natural progression to make our own ice cream… but so much better than anything we had ever come across on our ‘crawls’. We were adamant from the start that our ice cream should be utterly natural with no artificial additives and most certainly not coloured,” she added.
Purbeck has just over ten flavours – including ‘chilli red’, ‘vanilla bean’ and ‘cappuccino’ – and often pushes the limits with unusual ice creams such as ‘Dorset Blue Vinny’ (pictured here).
Price: around £3.69 for 500ml
Glastry Farm Ice Cream, Northern Ireland
Situated in Kircubbin, in the heart of County Down, Glastry Farm Ice Cream has been going for just over five years and prides itself on the quality of their milk, which comes from a pedigree herd (and is apparently in 'the top 1% of quality milk in Northern Ireland'). It's run by the Taylor family, who have been farming dairy cows and producing milk on Glastry Farm since 1856 - that's quite some heritage.
Their ice cream range includes 'vanilla bean', 'yellowman honeycomb' and 'strawberry blonde', and in 2010 they added sorbets to the list too (pear, raspberry ruffle, champagne...) Much of it is sold in restaurants across Northern Ireland, and their awards include the 'Bridgestone Best in Ireland 2012' and a Gold in 2013's Great Taste Awards.
Price: varies
Black Vanilla, London
Black Vanilla prides itself on handcrafting the finest gelato outside of Italy which its five Gold Great Taste Awards prove. The South London based Gelato and Sorbetto specialist (with branches in Blackheath and Greenwich) use only the highest quality ingredients from Bronte pistachios, to Piedmont hazelnuts, to Alfonso mangos.
They like to keep things fresh by introducing limited edition gelatos alongside its core flavours such as its Great Taste Award winning 'Mango Sorbetto' and the ever so popular 'Salted Caramel'. Joining forces with other London artisan producers such as The Meringue Girls and Meantime Brewing Company, it creates amazing exclusive Gelato recipes for its loyal and devoted customers as well as tourists.
Simply Ice Cream, Kent
“The best bought ice cream available,” says celeb chef James Martin of Simply Ice Cream. This stuff is made in small batches in the heart of Kent, using only simple, natural and fresh local ingredients.
Sally Newall is the woman in charge, and she both creates the recipes and makes the ice cream in Bonnington, Ashford. Her 20-year-long background in the catering industry prepared her for the challenge, and she strongly believes in making every single tub of ice cream by hand. Only one local farm shop stocked the stuff at first, but within the first year that had grown to 16 establishments. Today it’s available in nearly 400 outlets across the south of England, including 42 Waitrose stores.
Their ‘heavenly honeycomb crunch’ flavour has won four Great Taste Awards, and other exciting additions include ‘lemon curd’, ‘caramelised brown bread’, ‘Christmas pudding’, and ‘Kentish cobnut fudge’.
Price: around £4.65 for 500ml
Mr Moo’s, East Yorkshire
You’ll find Mr Moo’s in the seaside village of Skipsea, 40 miles east of York. They opened 10 years ago and this year the company started sourcing all its milk and cream from Chestnut Dairies based near Hornsea, which only collects milk from Yorkshire cows.
Chef Brian Turner described it as “beautiful, old-fashioned ice cream” and one of the most endearing things about Mr Moo’s is their beautiful ice cream parlour, located on the farm. Their ‘cow pat’ ice cream sundae is apparently ‘world famous’ and there is even the six-scoop ‘mega moo’ cone for those with insatiable appetites. The Mr Moo’s website considerately suggests two local walks, to walk all that dairy off afterwards.
The parlour gets fantastic reviews on TripAdvisor, with people recommending the Eton mess, marmalade and chocolate orange flavours out of the 30-strong selection.
Price: around £1.20 for a large scoop
Taywell, Kent
We had to include Taywell – they were crowned champions in our ice cream taste test, with falttering comments including “superb! The best I’ve ever tasted” and “devilishly rich”.
Entrepreneur Alastair Jessel set the Kentish company up in 2006 to utilise surplus fruit from his farm, and at the end of 2012 the ever-expanding business moved to just outside Tunbridge Wells. They’re now a supplier member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and their aim is to “thrill the connoisseur, invent awesome flavours, and to boldly go where no ice cream business has gone before”.
They make their ice cream in a commercial kitchen and all the milk and cream comes from Northiam Dairy, right on the borders of Kent and Sussex. The team famously claim that any fruit that can be grown in Kent is also available as a Taywell ice cream or sorbet – easy to believe, given their extensive list of flavours. We like the sound of ‘blackberry and apple crumble’, ‘Guinness’, ‘cherry and kirsch’, and ‘pink champagne’.
Price: £16 for a 2.5L tub
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