Vanilla N-ice!

IT’S now official, Morelli’s Ices, Coleraine, makes the best vanilla ice cream in the British Isles.

The famous north coast producers were awarded the title last week after snatching first place in the Champion of Champions competition run by the UK Ice Cream Alliance in London.

The Morelli family who have businesses in Portrush, Portstewart and Coleraine as well as a manufacturing plant at Sperrin Business Park won the top accolade for their entry in the hardest fought section: double cream vanilla ice cream.

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The success is seen as the cherry on the cake, or should that be sundae, for a family that have just celebrated their 100th year on the north coast and broke a Guinness world record into the bargain.

The multi-award-winning firm beat off competition from ice cream makers across the UK and Ireland and now the Morelli family hope their success will help attract more tourists to the area.

Arnaldo Morelli, whose great uncle Pietro Morelli founded the business at Stone Row, Coleraine, in 1911 said: “Our ice cream has won awards in the past but this is the first time we have landed the ultimate honour of Champion of Champions.

“Quite simply this means we are now recognised as the best in the UK and to be able to say that makes us all so proud. We already have people travelling long distances just to enjoy our ice cream and let’s hope this success will go someway to boosting tourism in Northern Ireland.”

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Arnaldo said the secret of their success was using the finest Irish dairy ingredients combined with years of experience and Italian passion.

It’s a formula that is clearly working with more than 50 different flavours of ice cream being produced at their Coleraine factory supplying demand from a host of hotels and restaurants on both sides of the border as well as Tesco supermarkets across Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The team at Morellis, which employs 50 people and produces more than 300,000 litres of ice cream every year, includes Arnaldo’s father Guido and brother Marino and sister Daniela all of whom are passionate about ice cream and have worked hard in recent years to win a string of national awards.

Congratulating them on their win, Zelica Carr, Chief Executive Officer of the Ice Cream Alliance, told The Times: “The Morellis were up against very strong competition but the judges felt their ice cream was outstanding and their success is well-deserved. They can now rightly claim to be the best of the best in the ice cream world.

“The ice cream industry continues to flourish and the quality and flavour is increasing every year thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of ice cream makers like the Morelli family.”

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