The sun has got his hat on & we are eating Purbeck ice cream!
The sun is finally shining here in deepest Dorset & we are all getting into the mood to eat ice cream! We offer Purbeck Ice cream in our 3 Chocolate Houses and have been working with owners Pete & Hazel Hartle & their sales king Patrick of Purbeck Ice cream since the very early days of Chococo.
Purbeck ice cream has also won a lot of fine food awards & is made just 5 miles up the road from us in Swanage, on the outskirts of Corfe Castle, a truly "chocolate-box" old stone village with what's left of a very famous Norman castle (it was blown up by Oliver Cromwell in the Civil War) - that's the Castle in the background.
By the way, if you are wondering about the word Purbeck, it is the corner of Dorset in which we are all based - south of Poole Harbour, north to Wareham & west to Kimmeridge, the area is known as the Isle of Purbeck (although we are not technically an island!) & it is a very special part of the world, being the start of the World Heritage Jurassic Coast at Old Harry Rock, the fabulous (but we would say that) seaside town of Swanage, ancient villages, old pubs (the Square & Compass in Worth Matravers is v famous), great cliff walks & the natural wonders along the coast of of Kimmeridge Bay & Lulworth Cove.
In fact, our first foray into the world of ice cream & chocolate sauce was at a local seafood festival in beautiful Kimmeridge bay, back in the summer of 2003. We borrowed one of Pete & Hazel's mini ice cream display units & as it was a a very hot weekend, we spent it under a gazebo offering holidaymakers a truly Purbeck taste experience whilst our daughter Lily (who was only 3 at the time) dipped in & out of the water in her rubber ring!
Today, if you visit any of our Chocolate Houses in Swanage, Winchester & now Exeter, you can discover a range of Purbeck ice cream flavours in the cabinets in each location & treat your taste buds to Dorset-made ice cream. Our ice cream offerings range from a simple single scoop in a waffle cone or 1 or 2 scoops served with our hot chocolate sauce in bowls to our more extravagent Chococo creations.
By the way, talking about our hot chocolate sauce - we dont use a sauce that is a concoction full of weird added sugars, glucose syrups & stabilisers to hold it all together, our hot chocolate sauce is a blend of pure origin milk & dark chocolate with a little water to loosen it & nothing else - so its just chocolate & it stays runny when poured onto cold ice cream....just how it should do!
I am a big believer in letting our customers choose what they might want to eat in terms of flavour combinations, hence you can choose the chocolates that go into your selection boxes if you visit us, but this also applies to ice cream & so if you want, you can enjoy one of our unique DIY Sundaes....you choose any 2 scoops of ice cream, any 2 toppings & we add in a jug of our unique house hot chocolate to pour over your creation.
We also offer a range of bonkers Sundaes with 3 scoops of ice cream & a selection of toppings, including fresh fruits, pretzels, mini mallows, crunchy freeze dried fruits & more. We also offer a Sundae of the Month from June to the Autumn - why not come in today to see what our current limited edition Sundae is!
We look forward to welcoming you to one of our Chocolate Houses this Summer to enjoy a delicious Chococo & Purbeck ice cream creation.