Want to know more about Kent's finest ice creams and where to find them? We've got it licked...

Always a treat, always cold, and often a celebration, but what is it about ice cream that quickens the pulse? It is, basically, a frozen blend of sweetened cream and milk, egg, air and flavourings, but the magic stardust lies in how it is made. This dictates how sweet, dense, crystalised, airy or close to nature it is — and the trend in Kent is for ingredients to be as close to their natural form as possible.

Throw an Italian or few into the mix, with their iconic gelato recipes (which tend to use less cream for a lighter impact on the palate), and there is now a wealth of choice to tickle the taste buds. Whatever the method used in its creation, artisan makers are capitalising on our rich grass-to-dairy and summer fruit heritage to produce delicious flavours and sumptuous finishes of ice cream.

Taywell Ice Creams, now based in Tonbridge, has contended with a change of ownership and a retrenching of the business to refocus on its Kent customers. Ross Turney took over in 2016 from the founder, Alastair Jessel, having joined as accountant when Taywell launched a decade earlier. An early appearance on BBC TV's The Apprentice helped raise the bar for luxury, local, hand-made ice creams and sorbets containing no artificial additives, no random vegetable oil use and (apart from the sprinkling of vegan varieties that are emerging) using real egg yolk to improve flavour and texture.

Ross roped in his family — wife Cherie and parents-in-law Marion and Nigel Flynn — and they make all the ice cream’s 60-odd flavours between them. “I still go out and meet all new customers – I want to build trust and a good relationship,” Ross says. With 80 per cent of their customers in foodservice in early 2020, and closed in lockdown, Ross posted on social media a promise of free delivery in Kent for anyone buying at least £15 of ice cream and suddenly found himself doing up to 90 home deliveries a day. Albion Fine Foods in Tonbridge has provided a lifeline as a distributor, and the upside was gaining a lot of new customers through farm and village shops and outlets including Penshurst Place and the Hop Shop at the Castle Farm lavender farm near Shoreham. Ross predicts they will churn out 70,000-80,000 labour-intensive small pots this year, double their normal output. As restrictions ease, the business will be looking to take on more staff. “We will expand, but our objective is to keep Taywell niche and bespoke,” he says.

Great British Life: Sally Newall of SimplySally Newall of Simply (Image: Sally Newall of Simply)

The taste and texture of Simply Ice Cream illustrates how tweaks to the balance of natural ingredients can vary the outcome. Sally Newall, whose mother was a caterer, started hand-whisking her rich and creamy varieties — which some have likened to licking clotted cream from the back of a Victorian silver spoon — as a teenager. Later, after stabs at medicine and law, she started making ice cream from her kitchen for events while working with her mother, launching Simply officially in 2008 after positive feedback. By this time she had also met her husband and started a family. Her four children, now aged between 17 and 23, have grown up with the business and all have helped through the pandemic.

“We wanted to make a very luxurious ice cream,” Sally says. It’s based on 50 per cent double cream, milk and sugar, drawing inspiration for its 33 flavours from favourite puds including apple crumble and Christmas pudding, as well as from more familiar ingredients. It is all hand churned. “Machines don’t allow the chunks to go through,” she says. Machines also only allow one flavour to be made at a time, with a big clean-down needed between each change. By doing everything by hand, Simply Ice Cream can make all their flavours in one day if needed – it just means more hands to the churn and longer hours. Local ingredients are sourced where possible, including fruit and dairy, and Simply partners with, for example, Fudge Kitchen for fudge and caramel bits and Kentish preserving company, The Wooden Spoon, for lemon curd. In April they launched three vegan varieties, which use a coconut base. Their online gift shop has a great ice cream-themed gift ideas.

Solley’s, who make their own ice cream using Channel Islands milk (ideal because it is creamier) from a neighbouring farm, are a destination in their own right, with a parlour set up on owners Keith and Katie Morrison's farm at Ripple, near Deal, which has been in the family for four generations. They have been making ice cream for over 30 years, with 85 per cent of base ingredients sourced locally and over 20 flavours of ice cream and sorbets to choose from. Watch out for their imaginative ‘specials’, which in the past have included a Bangers & Mash flavour, and Mother’s Day or Valentine’s Day deliveries.

Creams Factory in Tonbridge (not to be confused with Creams Café’s nine franchises in Kent) was the inspiration of experienced Italian ‘gelataio’ Giuseppe Trivigno, who moved to England specifically to open up a gelateria, making it himself on site, four years ago. Giuseppe and his business partner, TV chocolatier and pastry chef Chris Zammit, are to be seen concocting gelato and sorbets fresh every day, alongside milkshakes, smoothies, croissants, crepes, waffles and desserts — and will resume inviting groups of schoolchildren in to watch, learn, participate and have fun when they can.

Great British Life: Massimo and Catherine of Massimo's in FolkestoneMassimo and Catherine of Massimo's in Folkestone (Image: Massimo and Catherine)

Massimo’s ice cream parlour is a ‘destination’ in Folkestone, tucked away in a side street near the sea front and a firm fixture in the local community as well as a treat for summer visitors. Massimo Lo Bello had been making gelato in Italy before meeting his wife Catherine while she was tour-guiding in France. A Broadstairs native, she persuaded Massimo that his future lay on the (at that time) somewhat neglected Kent coast. Setting up in Folkestone in 2002 was a leap of faith for a man from Lake Como, and is no less so now, marooned from family during the pandemic and with post-Brexit import complications for the business. Massimo’s daily churning, using a blend of whipped cream and milk, is punctuated by lively phone calls to Italy where he sources many of his flavours, including fresh hazelnuts and mint from Piedmont, pistachios from Sicily, and amarena cherries from Emilia Romagna. Meanwhile Catherine is behind the counter — meeting, greeting, extending warmth, welcome and humour. “We love the community, and we love the business,” Catherine says. “We sell happiness.”

The taste of Italy is also behind everything to which Sicilian Salvatore Sciacca and his Romanian wife Anamaria turn their hands in Tenterden. Behind their iconic restaurant Montalbano, which they started five years ago, they have a Bottega/gelataria and deli — perfect for a pitstop. Having initially flown in Mario Failla, Salvatore’s school friend and a top professional ‘gelatiere’ in Sicily, to tutor him, Salvatore now makes it all from scratch, using milk and cream from Street Farm, High Halden (Kent Dairy Product of the Year winner), while sourcing ingredients—especially nuts—mainly from Sicily. “It’s all about balance,” Salvatore said. “It is an artisanal process and you have to make the time to achieve it. We try to bring a flavour of Sicily to Tenterden — family, good times and food are what we are all about.”

What better way to spend a staycation than working your way round ice cream shops, parlours and vans? Answers on a postcard, please.

Contacts:
Simply: simplyicecream.co.uk
Solley’s: The Dairy, Ripple, Deal solleysicecream.co.uk
Taywell Ice Creams: Online shop taywell.com
Creams Factory: 160 High Street, Tonbridge (1.30-8.30 pm) creamsfactory.co.uk
Massimo’s Italian Ice Cream (Mar-Oct): 14 Cheriton Place, Folkestone (icecreamfolkestone@gmail.com)
Bottega Montalbano (9am-5pm daily): 3 Highbury Lane, Tenterden bottegamontalbano.co.uk

More great Kent ice-cream pitstops:
Morelli’s - Victoria Parade, Broadstairs
Sorbetto, Harbour Parade, Ramsgate
Makcaris, Herne Bay seafront
Beach Parlour, Deal
Melt Gelato, Margate
Amarettos, Dymchurch
Sundae Sundae, Whitstable
Scoopid, Maidstone

We love: ices for charity
The Olive Tree bistro (Hospices of Hope), Otford, makes extra special ice cream using a recipe created by the charity’s founder 20 years ago. Crunchie, lemon meringue and Kiwi and Ginger and just some of the decadent flavours on offer.