10 of the Best Ice Cream Parlours in the UK
To us at Food and Travel, summer means ice cream. We’ve gone from Edinburgh to Helston to discover the best parlours in the UK. So grab a scoop and help yourself
Baboo gelato Bridport
Our first taste of the UK’s crème de la ice cream takes us down to the South West. This is unsurprising, considering some of the world’s best cream is produced from cows grazing the lush pastures and rolling hills. Baboo Gelato was opened in 2015 by Annie and Sam Hanbury. In its first year of operation, it won Taste of the West’s Champion Ice Cream & Sorbet 2016 for its lemon sorbet. Baboo Gelato uses organic milk from a small farm that has been owned by the same family for five generations, and the herd is treated like their children, which shows in the taste. Fruit comes from the Hanburys’ own orchard or nearby pick- your-own farm Forde Abbey. Try it out at outlets in West Bay or Lyme Regis or the 18 delis and restaurants in the area that stock their flavours.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Gooseberry and
elderflower.
Licc York
The Luxury Ice Cream Company (LICC) offers a Willy Wonka-grade 150 different flavoured ice creams from its fantastical premises in York’s city centre. A team of ‘flavourologists’ spend days working on new flavours, blending all manner of weird and wonderful ingredients, like the ever-popular tiger’s tail, which pairs liquorice and orange, or co-owner Dawn Argyle’s personal favourite, Bakewell tart. The shop gets through 60 litres of local Yorkshire milk a day, such is its popularity, and also serves old school-style sweets and chocolate bars. The shop launched in 2010 after the owners experienced their first taste of gelato on holiday in Barcelona. ‘We use Italian machinery, but everything else is local,’ says Argyle. ‘We call it Yorkshire gelato.’
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Tiger’s tail.
Gelupo Soho
Putting the dolce into la dolce vita, Gelupo was the idea of chef Jacob Kenedy and general manager Victor Hugo of restaurant Bocca di Lupo. Their serve sits somewhere between ice cream and gelato: it’s more dense than the former, yet lighter than the latter. This is achieved by keeping the fat content low and using churning equipment that mixes gently as it freezes. This density and the low fat levels deliver a big hit of flavour with a very clean finish. While it does the basic flavours well (one scoop of bitter chocolate is never enough), the more outré concoctions are where it really shines. We’re big fans of ricotta, coffee and honey, while their well-balanced sorbets and the icy, slightly syrupy granitas are absolutely packed with flavour, too.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Fresh mint
stracciatella.
Affogato Edinburgh
Pastry chef Anna Campbell launched Affogato after heading to Bologna to learn her ice cream craft. Her shop has only 18 flavours available at any one time, served from a handmade rotating table that enraptures younger guests as they select their scoop. The repertoire of flavours here changes regularly, with an excellent chai tea serve and a caramelised milk gelato that’s just the right side of sweet. All the chocolate used is Valrhona and Campbell isn’t shy about experimenting with interesting combinations such as an icy mojito cocktail scoop or lavender with honey. It also serves a fine line in the eponymous affogato: a shot of Illy espresso poured over your gelato of choice. What’s more, it even has an ice cream for dogs – low in sugar and with a peanut butter flavour.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Affogato.
Dolcetti Cheltenham
Living by the epitaph ‘cow to cone in a day’, Dolcetti’s gelato is arguably the freshest in the UK. Milk and cream is sourced from local farms, most of the fruit used in the 60 per cent pure fruit sorbets come from Hereford and there no additives or palm oils. A total of 24 flavours are available, ranging from the delicious honey and ginger and Amarena cherry, to the more classic toffee fudge, coconut and maple and pecan.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Butterscotch.
Gelateria danieli Richmond
Tickling the taste buds of all comers to Richmond Green since 2005, Danieli’s provided the ice cream for the Queen’s 80th birthday at Kew Gardens (Her Majesty’s chosen flavour was vanilla, in case you were wondering). The ingredients used are shipped in from all over the world, like Alphonso mangos from India and Sicilian Bronte pistachios. Sicilian lemon is a taste of the Italian summer, from where owner Carlo Vagliasindi hails.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Salted caramel.
Science cream Cardiff
Owner Carly Karran brings ice-cream making into the 21st century at this innovative parlour. Wearing protective goggles and a lab coat, she blasts the cream mix with -321C of liquid nitrogen to freeze it in seconds. The resulting product is smooth and velvety, while the clouds of dry ice billowing out of the mixer makes for great theatre. Flavours range from classic vanilla and fresh strawberry to ‘experiments’ like bacon and egg, with its custard ice cream, candied prosciutto, maple syrup and sea salt.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Brown-butter
caramel with honeycomb.
Gelato village Leicester
This authentic gelateria offers a refined selection of flavours crafted by maestro gelatiere Antonio De Vecchi, who learnt the traditional methods of making gelato in his native Italy. Gelato Village uses non- homogenised milk from grass-fed red poll cows reared in Leicestershire and seasonal fruit and honey from local producers. For its superbly tasty pistachio and hazelnut, the highest-quality nuts are imported from Italy. Their menu states that the gelato is gluten-free, they also cater to halal and kosher diets and vegans, so no one misses out.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Stracciatella.
Roskilly's Helston
The Roskillys have been perfecting their Cornish scoop since 1987. They started, like most ambitious ice-cream producers, by mimicking the gelato style and using imported Italian freezers and ready-made fruit purées for flavour. They kept the Italian know-how, but now choose to produce their own preservative-free fresh fruit purées which are blended straight into the mix. After building their own creamery in 2007, they now exclusively use the rich, organic milk from their fine herd of 125 plump Jersey cows.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Clotted-cream
vanilla.
Gelato gusto Brighton
After a decade commuting between Hove and London, ex-producer and director Jon Adams needed a change of pace. Inspired by childhood memories of a fine gelateria he visited on the Spanish Catalonia coast, he enrolled at Gelato University near Bologna, before opening Gelato Gusto in the centre of bohemian Brighton. He uses a Sussex dairy to create an eclectic menu of traditional and experimental gourmet flavours, such as banoffee pie and goat’s cheese and honeyed fig gelato as well as refreshing Earl Grey and G&T sorbettos.
Travel Details
TOP SCOOP: Sea-salt
caramel.
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