A flurry of sweet prizes has been scooped by local ice cream makers at the most premium New Zealand awards for the frozen dessert.
Motueka Creamery was awarded the Hawkins Watts Champion New to Market Award and three gold medals for its Bark Bay Belgian Chocolate flavour at the 2023 New Zealand Ice Cream and Gelato Awards. It also claimed two gold medals for its Mt Arthur Snowfall Vanilla flavours.
Motueka-based Deep South also achieved a gold medal for its hokey pokey flavour.
The dairy king of the two brands, Dene Brosnan, says he and the staff were “very excited” by the sweet success.
“I think it’s always good to get recognition for the hard work that goes into developing these great products for our customers, we put a lot of effort into the quality we produce, and I was very happy for the team,” he says.
“The Bark Bay Belgian Chocolate we’ve only just launched in the last 12 months… and the Mt Arthur Snowfall Vanilla has been on the market for several years, it’s one of our favourite products, it’s a great tasting vanilla ice cream, and the hokey pokey has been around for quite a long time.
“We get a lot of feedback from our customers, our team, and from friends and family and it’s consistently always positive.”
Stoke-based Appleby Farms Ice Cream scooped two golds at the same awards for its original chocolate chunk cookie ice cream sandwich, a collaboration with Cookie Time, and a gold for its strawberries and cream, which is available at its partner stores.
Chief executive Peter Findlay says he was “over the moon” with the results.
“It justifies all the hard work and the time and effort that goes into producing these products and investing in innovation as well, that’s quite important to us,” he says.
“The strawberries and cream is one of the classic flavours, and the judges said they found it delicious and even said they would buy it if it was in the supermarkets.
“The original chocolate chunk cookie sandwich which won two gold medals in the novelty and new-to-market category and the judges said it had great appearance and bite, very good creaminess, and it looked very inviting.”
Nine silvers and seven bronze medals were also claimed between the three brands.
Gelato Roma in Tāhunanui also made an appearance with three silvers medals for its milk chocolate gelato and boysenberry and raspberry sorbets.
Nelson’s Penguino Ice Cream Cafe scooped a silver for its mango and chilli flakes sorbet and a bronze for its lavender and coconut.
