For some people, it is the best ice cream there is. For others, it's the only ice cream. But this isn't some artisan gelato from Naples or Milan. For this ice cream you need to head to the valleys and seafronts of Wales.
Today, it's a food as synonymous with Wales as Penclawdd cockles or Halen Môn. But while those are named after the place they're found, this ice cream is named after one man.
But how many of us have actually asked ourselves the question as we sit on the seafront at Mumbles or in a bustling café in Cardiff: just who is Joe? Does he even exist? It's a story that goes back to the 19th century and the arrival of the Italians in Wales.
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They came at the peak of the industrial revolution and brought their café culture with them, immediately setting about opening the first cafés to service the thousands of coal, steel and dock workers.
Ice cream parlours and cafés sprang up all over and were known as ‘Bracchis’ after one of the most well-known Welsh-Italian families. These cafés helped introduce ice cream to Wales, with carts and parlours becoming a common sight in the Valleys and beyond.
In 1898, a peasant named Luigi Cascarini set off on his travels from the Abruzzi mountains of southern Italy, intending to work his way through Europe and on to America.
Arriving in the port of Le Havre in Normandy, he boarded a coal steamer bound for Swansea. Landing at the port town in the midst of the industrial era, Mr Cascarini discovered there were no cafés servicing the early workers of the Swansea valley. He abandoned his plans to travel further and decided to open a place where he would serve coffee from dawn until dusk.
He borrowed enough money from an Italian friend to open a general food shop in Swansea High Street. He was a dedicated worker, opening up at 4am every morning to serve the men heading to the munitions factory in Bridgend.
But what really set him apart was his homemade ice cream, once described by Mr Cascarini's nephew, Enrico, as consisting of fresh milk, sugar and cornflour, which resembled "wallpaper paste". But that didn't seem to stop his business flourishing.
Mr Cascarini was a canny business man. He worked every hour of the day making his café such a success that soon he opened five more. When his eldest son, Joe, was old enough he brought him over to Wales from Italy in 1922, and set him up running his café at 85 St Helen’s Road. The original shop is still there.
Joe decided to concentrate solely on ice cream - and Joe's Ice Cream was born. The other five shops did not pass down the generations in the same way as Joe's ice cream café, says Lucy Hughes, marketing manager at Joe's today and part of Mr Cascarinis's extended family.
"As the café owners passed by, so did the cafés themselves, although many people in Swansea do talk of their fondness for Cascarini's, on Fabian Way, and it's owner, Jenny Cascarini," she said.
After the Second World War, Joe set about his quest for the perfect ice cream. He ditched the cornflour and tweaked the ingredients to include only dairy produce. He apparently tried over 40 different types of milk, believing each one to have its own individual characteristics and tastes.
He settled on a combination of five different types of milk, with sugar, a stabiliser and vanilla extract. And Joe's proudly says today that that recipe is as you'll find it today.
"I'm afraid the recipe or technique for making the fresh vanilla is not shared," says Lucy. "It has not been changed since Joe Cascarini created it, and will not be for as long as the people of Swansea and surroundings continue to enjoy it just the way it is."
There are now three Joe's ice cream parlours in Swansea: the original and still the most popular in St Helen's Road, one in nearby Mumbles and one in Llansamlet. There are also shops in Cardiff and Llanelli.
Joe's only sell their parlour ice cream in vanilla flavour. Flavours are then added to the ice cream. In 1960, Joe Cascarini fell ill, and his Italian sister Delia, who had married Colin Hughes since arriving in Wales, helped support the running of the business. Enrico Cascarini took on the production of the ice cream at St Helen's.
After Joe Cascarini's death in 1968, the business was passed to Delia Cascarini and her husband Colin Hughes. By the 1980s, Enrico was working on solving an ongoing challenge: the problem with parlour ice cream is that it doesn't keep - it has to be bought and eaten on the same day.
Lucy says: "Our fresh vanilla is more a gelato than an ice cream. It is extremely soft, it is made fresh on the premises each day, and is not for freezing."
But Enrico, who was born in Swansea in 1931, managed to create a soft scoop version of the vanilla gelato so people could freeze it at home.
In 1984, Delia and Colin's sons, Dominic and Adrian Hughes, started running the business and opened a second parlour in Mumbles, which quickly became a popular feature on the seafront.
Enrico continued to develop flavours of the soft scoop. His recipe, made with fresh milk, skimmed milk powder, double cream, sugar, dextrose and egg yolk, was an instant success: in 1994, his chocolate version won the most prestigious industry award in the UK, the Ice-Cream Alliance's Champion of Champions cup.
But he was faced with this problem: people said "This isn't Joe's" when they tried his soft-scoop version. After years of experimentation, he arrived at something which "stands on its own."
In 1996, Enrico moved his production operations from the dairy at St Helen's Road to premises at Swansea Enterprise Park.
Awards for the ice cream continued to pour in, and Joe's won the National Ice Cream Alliance Awards for three years running for their cappuccino, mint choc chip, chocolate, vanilla and raspberry ripple flavours between 2009 and 2011.
Enrico died in August of this year, aged 86. His two sons, Stefano and Luke, and daughter, Carla, live in England and have not followed in their father's footsteps. But the family link is still strong.
Colin and Delia Hughes' sons, Dominic and Adrian Hughes, now own the business, with Dominic's children, Michael and Lucy, also working in the business.
"We are all part of Enrico's wider family," says Lucy, who is Joe Cascarini's great-great niece.
"We have always been close to Rico as he lived in Swansea for many years, was a great asset to the family business, and was a truly wonderful gentleman."
Her brother, Michael, currently heads up the production team in Llansamlet.
Today, Joe's ice cream is a Swansea institution. Catherine Zeta-Jones, who grew up in the city, is a fan, and "going for a Joe's" is actually a thing people say.
Even Dame Judi Dench has taken a visit, declaring: "Ice cream will never be the same". And at the start of 2020, Prince William and Kate Middleton enjoyed a Joe's while on a royal visit to Mumbles. Read more about that here.
Today, the soft-scoop ice cream comes in over 25 flavours, ranging from the traditional vanilla to key lime pie and Turkish delight.
Lucy says: "Flavours are developed according to market trends and customer demand.
"We have experimented with various flavours, but they are not always a hit with our Welsh market. Of course, 90% of our market have a strong preference for our fresh vanilla."
Despite its reputation and popularity, the production centre in Llansamlet has been kept relatively small. The production line is simple: one fills the tubs, one puts the lids on, one catches and packs them, and the fourth takes them to the cold room.
Many workers are members of the family, others stay for years. Lucy is proud that many of the management team are women, and she has worked hard to promote women in the workplace.
"We do choose to only sell our ice cream into the Welsh market and remain artisan with a strong emphasis on quality," says Lucy.
"This is also guided by our business still being family-run."
The company had a major rebrand in 2013, and now, almost 10 years later, as they celebrate 100 years since Joe's opened its flagship store on St Helen's Road in Swansea, the popular ice cream company will be unveiling a number of exciting changes, including a new rebrand, complete with a renovation and a fresh new dessert for the celebration: a Centenary Sundae.
Staying true to their Italian roots, the dessert with be a specially designed Tiramisu flavoured ice cream delight and will be made up of: "Joe's fresh vanilla, layers of coffee soaked sponge fingers and topped with dusted chocolate"
The official centenary celebrations will take place on Friday, June 10, during its opening hours of 11am and 8.30pm, with the grand reopening of its signature parlour. And while the official re-opening is later this week, if you're needing your ice cream fix in Swansea, fear not as the parlour on St Helen's Road is open and welcoming customers.
In addition to celebrating the parlour's birthday, on the day Joe's will be raising money for two charities at the relaunch event: The British Red Cross and Local Aid via voluntary donations.
With ice cream flowing and a new dessert, the brands refresh, which will feature a "more traditional blue" - returning to and revisiting its heritage - will feature more of the man himself - Joe - on the menus, tubs and more.
Lucy said of the grand reopening: “Here at Joe’s Ice Cream, we have always understood the importance of the company’s heritage and history, but for our family business to reach such a remarkable milestone is truly humbling.
"We wanted to mark the occasion in a way that was befitting of our modest beginnings, and we feel an exciting refurbishment at the same premises where it all began is a perfect way to celebrate with our customers. We hope that the next generations of our loyal custom base continue to visit us and create happy memories at our parlour.”
And the celebrations don't just stop at the reopening. To mark this incredible milestone and anniversary, the company are planning on planting 100 trees in Wales and another 100 in Nepal.
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