Indulgent offerings at IFE Manufacturing: Premium ice cream, UK-sourced ingredients & chocolate delights

01 Apr 2024 --- At the International Food & Drink Event (IFE) Manufacturing event last week in London, several start-ups and innovators presented a range of sweet offerings. Premium offerings stood out, as well as local British ingredients and chocolate-based treats that target healthy indulgence.

We spoke with several companies on the show floor, including British artisan premium ice cream brand Jefferson’s.

This spring, the business will be launching its ice cream Sammies, which are currently only available in stores, to its retail partners. 

“Each Sammie is made from homemade cookies and our delicious organic milk, which is made with natural ingredients,” Celine Thompson, co-founder, tells Food Ingredients First.  

The husband and wife duo bring “a contemporary twist to good old-fashioned American-style ice cream” that is extremely creamy, bursting with flavor and inclusions. 

The company creates a new flavor each month, with the recipes based on seasonal produce. 

British artisan premium ice cream brand Jefferson’s is launching its ice cream Sammies to the UK market.For example, there are only two sorts of chocolate coming into the nation, one is the Ivory Coast and they have had huge issues with the crop this year due to the recent increases in cocoa prices, Thompson notes. 

“So that has increased the price of chocolate when you’re making a real chocolate product like our ice cream. It’s been the same with mango coming from India as well,” she continues. 

“Worldwide, the price of mango has gone up. During the height of COVID-19, we had to adjust to what was available. For example, we’ve gone back to using English strawberries. If we buy really good English strawberries, we freeze them and use them when we need to,” she tells us. 

Reviving classic flavors
The next flavor the company will be working on is banana bread with caramel. Thompson says the idea is to “revive the classic banana bread by baking it and then folding it into caramel ice cream.”

Similar to the other ice creams with inclusions, such as its popular “brookie crumb” ice cream, the product is baked and then used as a stand-out flavor in Jefferson’s line of unique flavors. 

Meanwhile, the company’s offerings include allergen- and dairy-free formats. “Being able to offer a variety of solutions was important to us as a business, as my son had a lot of allergies when he was younger. The dark chocolate sorbet and the lemon and mango sorbet are vegan,” notes Thompson. 

“The quality of oat or coconut milk today is amazing and they’re better than standard soy or rice milk, which was all we could use a few years ago, meaning the armor we have to design these flavors is much more profound today. Nut milks are also great, we used to make our own cashew milk, too.”

Frozen healthy indulgence
Froot Pops is a UK-based start-up tapping into the frozen fruit and healthy indulgence space. The company has two SKU’s which are available in 20 retailers in London. Ana Martins, founder and CEO of Froot Pops.

Ana Martins, founder and CEO of the brand, says: “Our raspberries covered in dark, milk and white Belgian chocolate offer a frozen treat, something which you can have every day without feeling guilty and aren’t calorie packed.”

The company only uses British-grown raspberries and fairtrade Belgian chocolate, which, according to Martin, is a “really key pillar of Froot Pops.”

“We use totally clean ingredients, if you look at our labels, there’s nothing weird about them. We have raspberries and we have Belgian chocolate, that’s it. Those are the three ingredients that we use. I believe consumers today are looking for straightforward labels, and that’s the market that we’re tapping into—the space of healthy indulgence,” she underscores. 

Premium chocolates
Netherlands and UK-based Wow Chocolao presented its range of premium cocoa truffles, which are available in 26 novel flavors, including sparkling champagne and Cointreau, as well as traditional flavors like orange, hazelnut and salted caramel. 

The newest taste the company is set to launch is a cola-flavored truffle, Julia Cruts, a company representative, tells us. “Popcorn flavor is also very popular.”

“Our competitive edge is that we only sell truffle chocolates, which are very appealing to consumers. We offer different gift boxes, jars and hot chocolates in a premium product, but they are all based around our truffles.”

Wow Chocolao partnered with Swedish company Gava Gifting, which supplies bespoke, premium packaging for chocolate.The brand has also partnered with Swedish company Gava Gifting, which supplies bespoke, premium packaging for chocolate in shapes such as eggs, baubles and other shapes for chocolate gifting. 

Keeping in the realm of premium chocolate, Elit Chocolate also presented its milk, dark and white chocolate-covered strawberries that offer indulgence with the healthfulness of delicious freeze-dried, fully-ripened strawberries. 

Each chocolate-coated fruit bite offers a taste of decadence while being coated in shiny and rich chocolate.

You can read more on the show’s highlights here.  

By Elizabeth Green, reporting live from IFE Manufacturing