Following news that a Northumberland ice cream parlour has just won double gold at a national competition, a trip out to try it for myself seemed as good a way as any to start off the long Easter weekend.
The typical Bank Holiday weather was ou t to spoil things, however, with overcast skies and an Arctic-like chill in the air adding to an overall grey atmosphere as I arrived in Blyth. Images of basking in the sun, cone in hand, went out the window as fast as my extra jumper went on.
But first sight of my destination, Ciccarelli Italian Gelato at South Beach - all ice cream pinks, fresh and cheery - lifted my spirits and here, bringing a ray of sunshine all his own, I find Domenico Gregorio who this week picked up two gold medals at the National Ice Cream Competition for his new white chocolate gelato and a blackcurrant sorbet. The boss of Ciccarelli Italian Gelato (gelato, not ice cream, and yes there's a difference - quite a big one as it turns out) also runs Coastline Fish & Chips next door which on my Good Friday visit was preparing to shift a whopping three-quarters of a ton of fish.
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This is the busiest time of the year for both seaside staples, which sees queues stretch outside in both directions, and Domenico is out to be the best at both sides of business - but ice cream is his first love. If there were medals to be won for passion, imagination and enthusiasm then he no doubt would be adding to his tally of golds. As it was, Ciccarelli took a top slot at the Ice Cream Alliance's competition last year too so I was keen to try for myself some of the ices rated the nation's best.
My first surprise inside is empty freezers which I had expected to be fully stocked. While the family business has a big ice cream factory in Cramlington, supplying wholesale to everywhere from The Alnwick Garden to Beamish, plus a fleet of ice cream vans, Donemico favours the old ways and his gelato and sorbets are all hand-made here in Blyth. With various flavours in various stages of the making process, it turns out they can soon whip up a fresh batch if they run out.
So there's no need for ready feezer supply and in the spotless area at the back of the expansive parlour, staff member Kirsten Raw is doing exactly that. Having started at Ciccarelli at 17, she now expertly uses the traditional equipment to help create the gold-winning gelato. Yes, the traditional method is laborious says Domenico but he says: "I've done it like this since I was a little boy." It's an art and one which has been perfected over the decades.
He and his brothers all work in the business started by their parents Donato and Elena in 1966. The Blyth set-up is Domenico's and he's responsible for all the recipes and flavours.
He uses organic milk from a nearby farm and various local ingredients but others are from Italy where a recent trip has inspired him to add new lollies to his Blyth range which also includes milkshakes and granita - a type of Italian 'slush' which you just know is not going to taste anything like the slush we're familiar with. He has a version of ice cream for dogs too.
His mam, now 88, lives just along the road and comes in all the time to see what they're up to, says Domenico. She tastes the ices with a straight face and they all watch, waiting for her reaction, he laughs.
Ice cream is different to gelato. The former, using more cream, is more fatty which he says affects taste and masks flavour. And his sorbet, without milk, is a different experience again. It's all about quality.
"I want the people of Northumberland to have the best," he says, adding that if a product is good then people will come. He knows he's doing everything he can to offer them the best.
In the face of such passion, I don't have the heart to confess I rarely eat ice cream, especially with a steadily building queue of people happy to wait for a table. I've probably not bought an ice cream at the beach for years.
Here, it's the centre of everything. There's all sorts going on: an army of staff constantly on the go attending to sit-in customers and others at the takeaway counter serving from an array of containers of colourful ices.
Parts of the parlour's bright and breezy interior are in the process of being reconfigured as the business has been busy introducing new technology, such as compressor equipment, which actually has reduced energy bills. Kirsten is quietly going about her business and my first tasting is ready.
The first I try is the award-winning blackcurrant sorbet, created specially for the competition which decides the categories of flavours to be made. It's a deep purple, as you'd expect, and the taste of the fruit is just as intense and so cold it at first makes me wince.
But the flavour absolutely fills your mouth and it's really something special. I then try a lemon sorbet and I like this even better. I love lemon but often find in desserts it's spoiled by a cloying sweetness but this is properly lemony, refreshing and zingy, and it's no surprise that adjacent fish and chip shop customers will finish off in here with one of the sorbets or gelatos as a dessert.
Domenico is smiling as much as me when I try the sorbets. He wants people to enjoy what, for him, is a true passion so I can only imagine his pain when he tells me he hasn't been able to indulge for weeks as he's given up ice cream for Lent. Roll on Easter Sunday.
Now it's the turn of the second gold winner which I see Kirsten topping off with pieces of white chocolate to seal the deal. Creamy and indulgent, it's not my favourite as white chocolate isn't my thing but there's just no denying its sheer quality. My final taste test - and I'd like to point out these are small tastings so I haven't overloaded my palate - is of last year's gold medal-winning vanilla.
At the time, Domenico said Italians reckon that if an ice cream maker's vanilla is good then the other flavours will be too. It's a kind of mark of success. I would rarely pick vanilla myself but when I tried Ciccarelli's version I got exactly what he meant. Rather than the usual nondescript version, this is vanilla with real depth of flavour and it's an absolute winner.
So, do I think these gelatos are some of the best ice creams I've tasted? Well, actually yes I do. They taste like they should, which sounds a bit odd but I mean they have distinct and authentic flavours. You could probably do a blind taste test and get the ingredients spot-on. They're delicious.
For ice cream lovers Ciccarelli's is definitely worth the trip out. It's open daily and if you get a chance to meet Domenico then take it. It adds to the experience and you might well get a lookaround too.
There were other local successes in the National Ice Cream Competition too, with Di Meo's, Beckleberry's, Spurreli and Minchella's winning the likes of diplomas and Domenico's enthusiasm extends to them to: "absolutely brilliant" he says of their results.
On my way out, I file past the growing queues at Coastline Fish & Chips. That will have to wait for another time. But I reckon it also will be worth the trip.
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