[AD – Gifted] These products were gifted to me in exchange for an honest review.
The summer is well and truly here and when the sun’s out, the ice cream comes out too! But this summer, I’m really excited to share with you my first independent Northamptonshire producer product review that is deliciously natural and will guarantee to cool you off this summer = i’m real ice cream!
As you know, I am a huge advocate for supporting local businesses, particularly local food and drink producers, so I am pleased that I had the opportunity to work with i’m real ice cream on a gifted collaboration.
I’m real ice cream is just one of many examples of a small business who has successfully grown, but nurtured their business by staying loyal to what matters to them most = keeping it natural.
Let me tell you a bit about i’m real ice cream. The founders, Sabrina and Tony Brindisi practically grew up knowing and loving ice cream from their Grandfather who moved from Italy to England in the 1960’s to build a local, family-run ice cream business using techniques and methods learnt whilst in Italy.
I’m real ice cream comes from the love and knowledge passed down from creating ice cream made from fresh, natural ingredients – just like Mother nature intended!
I’m real ice cream’s ethos is truly remarkable and I’m not sure I know many other ice cream businesses who follow suit.
They are incredibly keen to practise what they preach by supporting local businesses by sourcing milk, cream and ingredients from local suppliers wherever possible.
Plus, they are big in wanting to support the environment by using sustainable resources for their packaging and believe their ice cream can help change the world one bit at a time – with an ethos like theirs, I don’t see why not!
By combining fresh local cows milk and cream, with cane sugar with real ingredients such as hand-peeled banana’s, roasted peanuts and homemade caramel – they aim to make ice cream using real ingredients to equal real taste.
I have had the pleasure of meeting the team behind i’m real ice cream at various foodie events across Northamptonshire, from Northampton Winter Food Festival, to Althorp Food & Drink Festival and recently the Towcester Food Festival. Their displays are always eye-catching and I can never help but grab a cheeky sample when I’m there.
I was lucky enough to try, taste and enjoy 7 of their naturally good ice cream flavours, so I’m going to break it down flavour by flavour so you know exactly what to expect:
Strawberry
You can’t beat a classic flavour and i’m real ice cream have nailed this classic flavour by making it extra fruity and creamy. Each pot of strawberry ice cream has had their strawberries hand-picked from local farms that have been treated with care.
The Strawberry flavour reminded me of eating a natural strawberry yoghurt, except it was much sweeter but still manages to be fruity and creamy. It caught me by surprise as most strawberry ice cream’s can be too harsh – not i’m real! It’s refreshing to the taste and would make an excellent choice for a hot, summers day.
Bourbon Vanilla
When it comes to ice cream flavours, I love keeping things simple with a classic Vanilla flavour, so I was very pleased to have received their own version to try.
The vanilla was so creamy and delicate and you could actually see and feel the little specs of Bourbon swirled into the ice cream. Every pot of Bourbon Vanilla uses real vanilla pods which makes this the ultimate vanilla treat. I think the vanilla ice cream would make an excellent homemade vanilla milkshake, as this was the most milkly and creamiest pot out of the lot.
Definitely the best vanilla ice cream I have tasted for a long time!
Salted Caramel Crunch
Salted Caramel and ice cream is such a winning combination, so I was very excited to see that i’m real had their own version. Especially after finding out they make their very own caramel sauce!
The Salted Caramel had the perfect balance of being sweet and salty, whilst incorporating the main ingredients in well, making this such a sweet treat!
Madagascan Chocolate
Call me weird, but I usually stray away from chocolate ice cream as I find it so sickly after eating a lot of it. But that wasn’t the case when eating i’m real’s Madagascan Chocolate flavour.
The chocolate is all homemade by i’m real using homemade brownies in their recipe, which gives it that super chocolaty taste that everyone can enjoy, without it being too much thanks to the fresh local milk, cream and sugar cane combination. I’d happily eat a whole tub of this again!
Coconut and Raspberry Shortcake
I’ll be honest, when I first saw that there was a Coconut flavour, I wasn’t keen as I’m not a fan of coconut, but for the sake of the review, I wanted to try it for myself and see whether my head would be turned.
Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised at the flavour and it actually tasted really good! I think the fact it was mixed in with a sweet, fruity raspberry flavour made the coconut flavour seem less prominent. For me, this was a delightful mixture of two flavours and once again, texture wise was very milky and subtle. I ate the whole pot and would happily have this flavour again!
Banana, Cardamom & White Choc Freckles
Out of the flavours I was given to try, this one was defintley my favourite and I’ll defintley be buying another few tubs! I’m a huge fan of Banana flavoured things anyways, but the Cardamom and White Chocolate combined blew my mind a bit!
Every Banana that goes into the ice cream has been hand peeled, all cardamom pods have been roasted and the white chocolate freckles just make the ice cream that more creamier and sweeter. The Banana reminded me of the banana foam sweets you get from Pick ‘n’ Mix shops, but you can tell a lot of natural ingredients and love have gone into this.
Defintley a 10/10 from me!
Toasted Peanut Butter
When I think of Toasted Peanut Butter in ice cream, I am always reassured its going to be a great flavour combination. i’m real take the time to source the finest peanuts to use for this flavour, so no wonder it’s got such a good taste!
Whilst being very creamy and delicate, it still held a lot of peanut flavour throughout the ice cream so there’s never denying that this is a toasted penut butter flavour. The additional swirl of butter defintley made this flavour even more luxurious and tasty.
What i’m real ice cream has also shown me is just how over-saturated and sugary other ice cream brands can be. By supporting a local business, not only are you buying into their product, but you discover just how natural real ice cream can be. i’m real have nailed these recipes down and there’s no denying that they have an amazing taste quality that everyone can enjoy this summer.
Overall, I’ve become an even bigger fan of their ice cream and look forward to making i’m real my treat of choice this summer.
You can purchase i’m real ice cream at retailers and restaurants like eat17, Budgens, Spar, as well as local farm shops and garden centres like Frosts, Bell Plantation in Towcester and The Deli at Castle Ashby.
Have you ever tired i’m real ice cream before? Will you be getting some to enjoy this summer?
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