When it comes to making ice cream, we always look to do things a bit differently. We don’t see ourselves as a plant-based gelato that vegans will love; we know that this is a product that people can enjoy regardless of their dietary preferences.

So when it came to submitting our gelato to the Great Taste Awards 2020, we didn’t just want to compete against other plant-based options – we wanted to take on the dairy ice creams in their own category.

We’ve long known that our approach of using real ingredients results in an amazing flavour, so it was great to see this validated by the Great Taste Awards judging panel. We didn’t just win one award – but three – for our Pistachio, Raspberry and Coffee flavours. 

We deliberately avoided mentioning that we were a fully vegan product in our awards submissions, leaving several the judges to compliment the ‘rich, silky creaminess’ of our gelato – achieved without the use of any dairy whatsoever.

Our Pistachio and Raspberry gelatos received two stars – given to fewer than 10% of entries – while our Coffee gelato received a one-star award.

Here’s what the judge’s had to say about our various flavours:

Raspberry

“The texture is creamy which gives an amazing mouthfeel, releasing full-on raspberry flavour - clean, fruity, and tart but with an indulgent sweet finish. A very enjoyable, tasty, well-made gelato that is singing of raspberries”

“A delightfully deep pink gelato with full-on fruity raspberry goodness. This has tang, zing and enormous raspberry notes. The texture is smooth and silky and coats the palate delightfully.  The finish is long, lingering and fresh.”

“A beautiful raspberry gelato with the richest velvety and creamy texture. Beautifully made and just bursting with ripe and sharp raspberries. The creaminess is rich and silky with a very clean finish. An absolutely delicious gelato in every way.” 

Pistachio 

“This had a natural tone to it […] both sweet and savoury, incredibly expansive and with a great amount of length. Delicious nut flavour.”

“Vibrant looking ice cream with a spectacular aroma of roasted pistachios. Rich creamy with a wonderful mouthfeel releasing an amazing intensity and purity of roasted salted pistachios that had incredible depth and was totally lush.”

“What a stunning flavour your gelato had, you have captured the true flavour of the glorious pistachio nut so very well indeed.”

“A down-to-earth and natural-looking gelato with a gorgeous nutty aroma. Divine! Such a pop of real pistachio! An unadulterated flavour.”

Coffee

“ It had lively flecks of ground coffee in the cream, with a fresh taste as if the beans were just ground. The creamy finish of the gelato was a lovely contrast to the tiny explosions of taste from the coffee.”

“Creamy light brown ice-cream with evenly distributed coffee flecked throughout. The flavour of the freshly roasted coffee was well defined, bringing a deep bitterness with chocolate notes, complementing the creamy smooth ice-cream.”

Each year the Great Taste Awards considers more than 12,000 products from over 106 different countries, bringing together 144 chefs, food critics, restauranteurs and producers to select the best products available on the market through blind tasting.  

The awards are widely recognised as a stamp of excellence within the food and beverage world, and us at Beau’s are delighted that we are now part of the select group of Great Taste Award winners, particularly having done so at the first time of asking!