Ice cream show whips up the crowds

By Alex Grundon and Cory Allen
BBC News, Harrogate

Even cheese-flavoured ice cream is on offer at the event

Your favourite might be a whippy in a cone. There is every chance you like a bit of Neapolitan. But then few things beat plain old vanilla. And do you favour sprinkles or squirty sauce?

Whatever your palate, Harrogate in North Yorkshire is the place to be as the Ice Cream Alliance is holding its annual trade exhibition, showcasing the latest flavours, ice cream machines and even the vans that pound the streets in summer.

Ice cream purveyors from all over the UK and Italy will wow the crowds with all sorts of delicious treats.

New flavours being unveiled this year include rhubarb, bubble gum, stollen (just in time from Christmas), apple pie and even cheese.

Just imagine, two courses in one at your next dinner party. A credit crunch-tastic winner, surely?

Balsamic vinegar

Paulo, who comes from Parma in Italy every year for the exhibition, said: "With ice cream you can have unusual savoury flavours on a lot of occasions.

"For instance, I come from Parma and I make Parmesan ice cream.

"It's not something you could sell in an ice cream cabinet but as a special entree in a restaurant, why not, especially if you use balsamic vinegar dressing."

There is also a fleet of new ice cream vans from engineering firm Whitby Morrison taking up a corner of the exhibition, complete with 64-tune chime boxes, (sub-woofer not included).

The event is the only UK exhibition dedicated to the ice cream industry

But they still print the ceilings with children's nursery rhyme pictures.

Like a luxury car, each van is built to customer specifications and even the cheapest one will set you back a cool £45,000.

There is also a competitive side to the exhibition. Six hundred flavours of ice cream have been entered and the judges have to decide which are top in their category.

For example which is the best vanilla, or which of more unusual varieties such as apple pie is the best new flavour?

The winner is presented with a silver trophy which they keep for a year.

• The Ice Cream Alliance Exhibition is at the Yorkshire Events Centre in Harrogate until Thursday.