Morelli’s ‘lick the competition’ again

Marino Morelli with his award winning mango sorbet at the National Ice Cream competition. Picture: Richard Doughty Photography

Its Mango Sorbet has just ‘scooped’ the Silver Challenge Cup.

“This is brilliant – we’ve never won for a sorbet before,” said Marino Morelli, who looks after new product development for the company.

“It’s a first. It was great that celebrity chef Gennaro Contaldo was on the judging panel for this category.”

Marino added: “Mango is our most popular sorbet variety and we’ve been making it for a long time – 20 years or more. It’s one of our stalwarts.”

Morelli Ice Cream has a strong following in Northern Ireland with six parlours along the North Coast and Mid Ulster. The win comes after the family recently invested £330,000, expanding their ice cream production centre in Coleraine which is now producing 800,000 litres of ice cream a year.

The business was launched in 1911 and is are still using traditional family recipes. It is very particular about its ingredients and is fortunate to have such high-quality butter and double cream available from the Ballyrashane Creamery.

The National Ice Cream Competition is held every year by the Ice Cream Alliance (ICA), the UK trade association for the ice cream industry. Hundreds of products are submitted across thirteen categories ranging from Best Vanilla (84% of ice cream parlours rate this their best-selling flavour) to ‘Alternative’ category products which includes those free from the top 14 allergens, dairy-free, low-fat, high-protein, no-sugar, and others.

“Congratulations to everyone at Morelli’s,” commented Zelica Carr, ICA CEO. “There was very stiff competition. This category saw some outstanding entries.”