16 February 2023 - Flipbook - Page 49
BUSINESS
FW
FARMWEEK
OCTOBER 28 2021
49
ABOVE: The Golden Fork
award-winning caramelised
hazelnut ice cream.
INTERVIEW
ABOVE:
Arnaldo
Morelli, right,
and Daniela
Morelli-Kerr,
second right,
pictured
with Michele
Charrington,
Invest Northern
Ireland.
Arnaldo Morelli,
managing director of
Morelli’s Ice Cream
in Coleraine, talks to
SAM BUTLER about
the company’s recent
success in the finals
of the Great Taste
Awards.
LEFT:
Morelli’s
unique Libero
range of
dairy-free ice
creams.
WINNER: Arnaldo Morelli, managing
director of Morelli’s Ice Cream, pictured
with the Golden Fork Award.
LEFT: Arnaldo and sister Daniela Morelli
with some of the Coleraine company’s
winning ice cream tubs.
Arnaldo’s love of hazelnut flavour
leads to top taste award in Britain
We had been
working with
hazelnuts from
Italy’s Piedmont
region for some
time and decided
to enter the ice
cream in the
Great Taste
Awards to see
what the experts
thought of it.”
COVETED: The coveted
Golden Fork.
A
RNALDO Morelli’s
love of the flavour of
hazelnuts from Italy
resulted in another
outstanding success
in the finals of the prestigious
UK Great Taste Awards for
Morelli’s Ice Cream, the
family’s historic business in
Coleraine.
The company came away
from last week’s finals
with the Regional Fork
for Northern Ireland for
the tastiest product from
Northern Ireland and one of
the best in the UK.
Arnaldo, managing
director of Morelli’s, which
was launched in 1911 and
is now Northern Ireland’s
most successful and widely
respected innovators of
authentic Italian ice cream
flavours, saw the company’s
new caramelised hazelnut
ice cream named among the
13 most delicious products
in the United Kingdom and
Republic of Ireland at the
finals of the UK Great Taste
Awards, Europe’s most
influential food and drink
competition.
“We had been working
with hazelnuts from Italy’s
Piedmont region for some
time and decided to enter
the ice cream in the Great
Taste Awards to see what
the experts thought of it,”
Arnaldo explains.
“I’ve always loved hazelnut
ice cream. While it’s probably
my favourite flavour, hazelnut
on its own never really sold
that well. I decided to ‘tweak’
the flavour and to make
it more appealing to the
public. We all have a sweet
tooth here and so larger,
crunchier, caramelised nuts
and a salted caramel sauce
were natural additions. And
they worked extremely well,”
he adds.
The company’s
longstanding practice,
he says, is “to refresh its
selection of ice cream flavours
regularly ahead of the spring/
summer season”.
“We always endeavour to
come up with around six new
flavours especially for our
scoop parlours here every
year,” he adds. “Children in
particular are always looking
for different tastes especially
during the holiday season.
Ice cream, however, is now
a round the year dessert
favourite.”
Arnaldo’s ‘tweaked’
hazelnut flavour captured the
attention of expert judges
at the Great Taste finals and
they awarded the company
the Northern Ireland Regional
Golden Fork as the province’s
very best food – the first
time Morelli’s had won the
coveted award. It was, in
addition, the only ice cream
to win an award at the finals
which featured entries from
across the United Kingdom
and Republic of Ireland. This
made it the tastiest ice cream
in the finals.
The experts described
the ice cream as ‘a very
attractive, sophisticated ice
cream that has been well
made’. Another judge said it
was ‘well balanced with the
sweetness that makes it so
very indulgent and satisfying
creating a truly excellent
product. This is bloomin’
lovely!’
The winning ice cream was
one of 13 products to pick
up the coveted Golden Fork
trophy for their respective
country or region. Other
winners included Scottish
kippers, balsamic vinegar and
craft gins. Mallaig Scottish
kippers were chosen as this
year’s Supreme Champion.
Now operated by the fifth
generation of the Morelli
family, the small batch ice
cream makers still use fresh
double cream and butter
from cows grazing on the
lush green pastures of the
Causeway coast. Toffee
brown in colour and super
creamy, this caramelised
hazelnut ice cream is made
with Ballyrashane Creamery’s
Irish Double Cream, also
from Coleraine, hazelnuts
from Piedmont and swirls
of caramelised hazelnut
nibs and a salted caramel
variegate sauce.
Arnaldo continues: “We
are thrilled to have won the
prestigious Northern Ireland
Regional Golden Fork. It
doesn’t get any better than
being named among the
tastiest foods in the UK. It’s
a marvellous boost for the
business and, of course, the
entire Morelli family,” he
adds. “I am confident that the
new flavour will prove a huge
success with ice cream lovers
here and elsewhere.”
The Regional Golden Fork
is sponsored by business
development agency Invest
Northern Ireland (INI). The
award was presented by
Michele Charrington, INI’s
business development
director in Britain, as part of
the Speciality Fine Food Show
in Harrogate.
ABOVE: Arnaldo and Daniela Morelli with, centre, Andrew
Rooney of Rooney Fish in Kilkeel which won three stars for
its Millbay Oysters in the Great Taste Awards, at the finals in
Harrogate.
There were a number of
other local products taking
part in the show such as
Burren Balsamics from
Richhill, Co Armagh; Irish
Black Butter, Portrush, Co
Antrim; Hellbent Meats from
Belfast; Forest Feast from
Craigavon, County Armagh;
and Ballygowan’s Noisy
Snacks.
In addition to sales
throughout Northern Ireland,
Morelli’s supplies tubs to
multiple supermarkets such
as Morrison’s in Britain
and Tesco here and in the
Republic of Ireland.
The small business
employs around 20 people
in Coleraine and has been
among the most innovative
and recognised ice cream
producers in the United
Kingdom for many years.
Morelli’s double vanilla, for
example, was named Best
in the UK and Ireland in the
Ice Cream Alliance Awards in
2019, the most important for
the ice cream industry.
In addition to its range of
quality ice creams, Morelli’s
has produced frozen yoghurt
in collaboration with
Clandeboye Estate, Northern
Ireland’s only manufacturer
of yoghurt.
It has a range of Libero
branded dairy-free ice cream
and has also teamed up
with award-winning Irish
Black Butter in Portrush to
develop a unique flavour for
scoop parlours. Its dairyfree range replaced milk with
ingredients that maintained
the creaminess and flavour
of ice cream and featured
a healthy coconut fat, a
sugar replacement and plant
extracts.