Newcastle’s Lick Gelato scoops ice-cream award

Lick Gelato of Newscastle, Co. Down has won a gold medal and trophy at the National Ice Cream Championships 2021 run by the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA), the sector’s UK trade association.

Their toffee ice cream beat all entrants in the ice cream competition which has been running for 76 years.

“We are absolutely over the moon and back with our award,” exclaimed Lick Gelato co-founder Simon Welby. “When we were watching the presentation live it was a state of near disbelief and elation at the same time when we were announced as the winner. This award is a massive deal and achievement for us as a very young business in the ice cream world.”

Lick Gelato specialises in handcrafted artisan gelato and was founded by Simon, Jo-Ann and Seth just six years ago. They spent approximately a year developing their own, secret recipe at Loughrey College with the help of their technical team before opening their bricks and mortar shop on Central Promenade. Lick Gelato employs a total of eight hardworking and dedicated ice cream engineers who provide a memorable experience when people visit their store.

The championships are normally held at the Ice Cream and Artisan Food Show in Harrogate and hundreds of products are submitted across 13 categories. Because of the pandemic this show was cancelled.

Zelica Carr, ICA CEO explained: “The ICA decided that despite lockdowns and severe restrictions on trading we needed to show our sectors resilience by continuing with these annual awards. I want to thank all those who entered and our dedicated panel of judges who tasted the entries and selected winners in a socially distanced and Covid secure procedure at our head office.”

“Congratulations to Simon and his team. There was very stiff competition in all the categories so to win gold is a big achievement.”

Ice cream parlours and ice cream vans have been hard hit in this pandemic losing a total of £289million in income in 2020*. That is just the tip of the iceberg when you add lost ice cream sales in cafes, restaurants and hotels and the economic impact to businesses along the supply chain – manufacturers, flavour houses, wholesalers and others. That is why the ICA has launched Great British Ice Cream Staycation campaign, in which Pinks Parlour is participating, to support ice cream sales in the hospitality sector.

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