Food industry hero: Purbeck Ice Cream


The ice cream sector is one of the most innovative in the dairy market. NPD developments in both flavour and format include ice cream from Russia that doesn’t melt, vitamin ice cream aimed at children, energy ice cream for men and ice cream truffles.

In this issue, our food industry hero is the award-winning purveyor of innovative flavours, Purbeck Ice Cream. Responsible for converting consumers to award-winning flavours that include chilli, green tea, liquorice, Chrimbo pud and British Damson, it’s the story of a Dorset dairy farm that diversified into big business.

In the 1980s, Peter and Hazel Hartle were struggling to cope with milk quotas and production limitations that threatened to put their family dairy out of business.
Faced with the choice to innovate or die, they decided to try their hand at producing naturally flavoured, GMO-free ice cream. They went into production in a converted building next to the farm house, with one of them milking their herd of 60 Fresians and the other batching up the first tubs of Purbeck Ice Cream.

Their first taste of true innovation was in response to a request in 2001 from a fire station in Bournemouth that invited them to create an ice cream for a chilli-themed Mexican evening. Their new product, Chilli RED, a sweet/savoury hot ice cream, was made with minced red chillies and went on to win a series of awards for flavour and innovation.

Chilli RED became the founding member of the Spice Rack range, which now runs alongside a diverse range of products, including Purbeck Sorbets, made with local fresh spring water and natural fruit juices, scoopable at -18 degrees; and Dorset Flavours, made with ingredients found on their doorstep. The latest flavours include: British Damson, Piddle Sorbet (in conjunction with local Piddle Brewery), Stem Ginger, Serious White Chocolate and the award winning Berries & Clotted Cream.

The level of innovation means that Purbeck ice cream has much more versatility than traditional ice cream. Flavours such as rum & blackcurrant and tequila & lemon are served as shots in bars and used in sweet and savoury recipes, including Chilli RED with carpaccio of dragon fruit, lemon grass and lime syrup, and mint chocolate chip mille feuille with sweet pesto sauce.
                                        

Five minutes with Hazel Hartle, owner of Purbeck Ice Cream

Which is your favourite Purbeck flavour, and why?
My personal favourite has to be good old fashioned Clotted Cream. Most folk add some sort of flavour as their plain mix tastes so awful in the first place, but because ours is all natural, we manufacture Clotted Cream with no added flavour at all and it's really good and goes with everything.

How important is innovation to Purbeck?
Innovation is hugely important to us as it keeps us on our toes, keeps the range fresh and gives what the consumer is looking for...difference, innovation and flair.


What are the main challenges you face when creating new flavours?
Challenges faced when looking for new flavours are that we only use entirely natural, no GMO, gluten, eggs, nuts, additives or colours of any kind. You'd be surprised how often we are offered things that turn out to be not what they are described as, so we have to independently analyse things before they ever get near our mix!


How do you come up with your new flavours – where do you get your inspiration from?
New flavours are jotted down throughout the year with suggestions from our team, our customers and chefs both within Dorset and from the city - where tastes are somewhat different.