Founded in 2018 by husband and wife duo Rob and Iona Gore, Brickell’s is the leading producer of craft, all-natural luxury ice cream in the UK. Based at Rob’s home, Westcombe Farm in Somerset, Brickell’s is a family business to its core and takes its name from his great grandparents’ and the original farmhouse they lived in.
The business was inspired by the craft ice cream scene in America and came about after Rob returned from studying Ice Cream Science at Penn State University. So bewitched by the US scene he promptly founded Brickell’s, launching with a simple French custard base ice cream, the recipe of which has remained to this day. The ice cream is made using milk from the family dairy farm, Westcombe, fresh double cream from Estate Dairy, free range egg yolks from Clarence Court and British beet sugar. The couple are incredibly proud, and somewhat standalone, in producing an ice cream free from preservatives, emulsifiers, stabilizers, colourings and flavourings, making it an entirely ultra-processed free ice cream – a feat almost unheard of in commercial ice cream production and something they are steadfastly committed to.
Flavour First
Rob leads on recipe development, choosing to build every flavour from scratch using raw ingredients from the bounty of growers and makers on their doorstep and never using pastes, additions or ripples from flavour houses. From roasting strawberries in their Somerset kitchen to handmade ripples of home-made salted caramel, the team does it all in-house.
The core flavour range includes: Vanilla, Roasted Strawberry, Ricotta Stracciatella, Salted Caramel & Chocolate. They then regularly release popular seasonal specials including the likes of: Gooseberry, Cinnamon Toast and Brown Butter & Mince Pie.
Completely uncompromising in their approach to creation and sourcing, if Rob and Iona cannot grow the ingredient themselves, they will source from the very best places; for example ricotta directly from Westcombe Dairy next door, bread from Landrace Milling (also next door) for the cinnamon toast flavour and chocolate from Suffolk based, Pump Street.
This summer will see the launch of some delicious new flavours:
- Honeycomb (made in-house with local Blackbee Honey in the base).
- Malted Landrace Cookie (using cookies made by neighbours Landrace Bakery).
- Mint Choc Chip (using mint grown in the kitchen garden).
- Cardamom, Raspberry & Toasted White Chocolate (using LAND Chocolates Toasted White Chocolate).
The mint choc chip flavour in particular marks the start of them growing their own ingredients in a one-acre Georgian kitchen garden on Westcombe Farm. The garden was bought by Rob’s grandfather, after the house it belonged to was demolished after the war. In keeping with their committed approach to keeping food miles low, Rob and Iona have been slowly and thoughtfully restoring it to its former glory, with grand plans to grow more than just mint this year, using the space as a test bed for new flavours and a supply of further raw ingredients.
Find out more about Brickell’s at www.brickellsicecream.co.uk.
