The Great British Ice Cream Company

 Oh ice cream.  How I love ice cream.  I eat it every day.  Literally.  At least once a day.  Rarely as a standalone dessert, more commonly as the topping or side along with my warm baked good, pie, crisp, crumble, cobbler, etc, or at least loaded with toppings as a sundae (exception: soft serve, that is intended to be a standalone dessert, in a cone, with sprinkles or dip!). 

Travel.  Another passion of mine.  Put them together, and I eat a lot of ice cream when I travel too, exploring brands and products not available in the US (Tokyo, by the way, has soft serve nailed.  Some of the best I've ever had, anywhere, in the world, in Tokyo (see my guide)!)

Anyway, during my trip to London, I spent most of my time seeking out sticky toffee pudding, served with clotted cream or custard, so didn't actually have all that much ice cream.  Plus, well, London weather wasn't exactly my kind of "ice cream weather".  That said, I did get my hands on a few mini tubs, from The Great British Ice Cream Company, in the ice cream freezer at my London office.

"This delicious ice cream is produced in the heart of the West Country using either British double cream or West Country clotted cream.   Eleven mouth-watering flavours are available in both impulse 120ml tubs or 5ltr Napoli scooping formats."

Well, it certainly sounded great.  Double cream or clotted cream as a base?  Count me in.  And with a name like "The Great British Ice Cream Company" how could I think otherwise?

Spoiler: not particularly great.  That said, my flavor choices were limited, I would have loved to try the clotted cream version studded with pieces of honeycomb, but alas, not in the freezer.

Strawberry & Clotted Cream.

"Strawberry flavoured dairy ice cream made with strawberries & West Country clotted cream."

The Great British Ice Cream Company is a wholesale company, but one that aims to look very local and unique, and I did think the packaging was cute.

I'd never pick strawberry normally, but again, limited options, so I tried it.

It was very rich and creamy, the cream quality was obvious, which I appreciated, but, strawberry just isn't my flavor of choice.  At all. 

Blackberry Ice Cream.

"Blackberry flavoured dairy ice cream."

Blackberry also isn't the flavor I'd pick, but, it is what the office had that day.

It was decent ice cream, fairly fluffy, if that makes sense, although not particularly rich and creamy. 

The berry flavor was quite strong ...  which just isn't what I wanted necessarily.  Amusingly, I do like black raspberry ice cream ... but only when soft serve, and only when in a cone, and only with sprinkles, and only when consumed in the sun.  So, uh, yeah, I have strong preferences?

I think this was quality ice cream, just not for me.