Anything but plain
Juliette Richards • July 12, 2024
With so many exciting and trendy flavours of ice cream available, vanilla is often viewed as the underdog - somewhat middle of the road and predictable – often on the menu to accompany a delicious dessert.
The truth is vanilla is anything but plain! In fact, it is an extremely complex and versatile flavour, used in both sweet and savoury dishes. It also has an exotic history and when it comes to taste, quality really does matter.
Did you know…
- Producing vanilla is an extremely labour-intensive process.
- Vanilla grows on a vine with orchid flowers that open for one day, once a year. Vanilla growers hand pollinate each flower.
- Each flower produces one bean. After 9 months growing on the vine vanilla beans are harvested by hand.
- After harvesting, the vanilla beans are cured. This takes another 9 months. Each day the beans are laid out by hand to dry in the sun and each night they are manually wrapped up to heat and cure.
- Vanilla originated in Mexico and was first cultivated by the Totonac people. The Aztecs later adopted it, and it spread globally through Spanish colonisation.
- According to a recent survey by Synergy, when it comes to taste consumers prefer pure vanilla extract over natural vanilla flavour. It’s easy to see why - pure vanilla extract contains over 200 compounds, contributing to its complex and rich flavour.
- There are many different types of vanilla flavour, depending on where the vanilla is produced. Madagascar is the world's largest producer of vanilla, followed by Indonesia and Mexico. Madagascan vanilla was voted the most popular flavour in the recent survey by Synergy.
- When it comes to purchasing vanilla ice cream, 28% of consumers prefer Vanilla Bean over French Vanilla and Vanilla.
At PURE we are passionate about producing ice cream that is all natural and offers intense flavours. To ensure this happens we carefully select the very best ingredients. We use pure Madagascan vanilla extract and real organic vanilla bean paste for our Vanilla Bean Ice Cream. Our supplier is also passionate about taste, as well as sourcing vanilla that is ethically produced and sustainable. We know this investment in quality is worth every penny.
Now you know a little more about the ice cream world’s underdog, try PURE’s Vanilla Bean Ice Cream and see for yourself.
Hold onto your spoons — we are delighted to announce that there’s a new champion in town and it’s scooped up gold! Our brand new, all-natural Tiramisu Ice Cream has just taken home top honours at the prestigious Outstanding NZ Food Producer Awards. And trust us, this isn’t just any ice cream — it’s a creamy masterpiece, a combination of delicious PURE-made mascarpone, coffee, cocoa and eggs that’ll make you want to savour every single spoonful.
We get pretty excited about the NZ Ice Cream and Gelato Awards, as it’s a great opportunity to find out what everyone across the industry has been up to. We pride ourselves on producing delicious, all-natural ice cream, gelatos and sorbets; so it’s very satisfying to hear that the judges agree! Of course, we also love winning awards for our products - who wouldn’t?
We are delighted to announce we have won a Silver medal at the Outstanding NZ Food Producers Awards 2024, this time for our delicious Kaffir Lime and Ginger Ice Cream.
The 2023 results are out and we are delighted to announce that our Dark Belgian Chocolate Sorbet has won Gold! Overall at this year’s awards, we have picked up an impressive 11 medals in a highly competitive industry confirming that PURE New Zealand Ice Cream continues to create delicious, all-natural artisan ice creams the judges and our consumers love.
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At PURE New Zealand Ice Cream we are, naturally, big ice cream fans! And while our intensely delicious flavours are sensational by themselves, we love to find ways for PURE lovers to enjoy more. If you're looking for more ways to enjoy PURE, then take a look at some of these scrumptious ideas.
Spring is finally here and what better time to enjoy cake and ice cream on a sunny afternoon. This stunning lemon cake relies on tart lemons to really show it off. Serve it with a good scoop of delicious, all-natural PURE New Zealand Lemon Curd Ice Cream to heighten the flavours and textures in the cake.
The NZ Ice Cream and Gelato Awards results are out! And we are delighted to announce that we have achieved our biggest scoop ever - a Category Champion and a total of 12 medals! Read on to find out more.