As the weather gets warmer, isn’t there just one thing that is always on your mind? It definitely is for me! Ice cream!! I was so excited when I was invited to the exclusive factory tour of Harry’s Ice Cream!
Upon arrival at the factory, we were greeted by a beautiful table with canapés, macarons and a blueberry-lemonade-vodka cocktail! Mmmm! Delish! And how pretty is the bunting?? Gosh, I am obsessed with them! hehe
The mini treats were so delicious! Never seen such small bagels before! They were stuffed with smoked salmon, cream cheese and capers! I couldn’t stop at one. haha The pea tarts were surprisingly yum! I am never one for peas, but these were soft and sweet (in a savoury kind of way haha)!
How cute are these mini chicken sandwiches? Never seen such small loafs before!!! Next to them drew my attention immediately! Do you know why? hehe Because of the dried figs!!! and they go so well with the blue cheese on the puff pastry base! Mmmmm!
We were so spoilt that day and were even given cocktails served in mason jars and with a polka dotted paper straw! It had a really good tang to it cause of the 40 lemons that were hand squeezed into the large jar dispenser! hehe Loved the tinge of pink it had too! Such a girlie drink! I have to admit, I almost wanted to take one of the jars home! haha
While we were enjoying the little nibbles, we were introduced to the brains behind Harry’s Ice Cream – Lawrence! He shared with us the history and how Harry’s Ice Cream came about. So here are some fun facts : They first started making ice cream in 1994 and sold them in stores. The first one is at Chadstone and this carried on till 1999. By then, they had 12 stores and they decided to open the Harry and Larry’s factory! They do supply to supermarkets under different brand names, but decided to come up with Harry’s that did exclusive flavours!
We were then introduced to the head of the ice cream maker, Tony, who would be bringing us for the factory tour as well as explaining to us the whole magical process!
(Photo credits : Harry’s Ice Cream)
But before we could enter the factory, we had to gear up and sanitise our hands so that we keep the area as clean as possible! haha Don’t we look good in our hair nets? haha We were ready to roll!
It was pavlova day at the factory that afternoon! So the team was high in production! Just tubs and tubs of ice cream being filled and capped, then stored in the freezer!
Then the fun part started! We were brought to a smaller scale ice cream machine to make the flavor that Ling came up with : White chocolate and mixed berries ! It was such a phenomenal process, from the pasteurised custard to the adding of the mixed berries, and viola! Ice cream!!
How pretty is the colour? It was velvety smooth too! All contained and ready to be frozen so that we could taste a little later on!
On a larger scale, these filling machines fill up to 51 tubs per minute! It was so amazing to see it at work!
The pavlova flavor had an amazing passionfruit curd swirled into the custard and we could smell it from a mile away! They make up to 3600 litres of ice cream per hour and 68000 tubs of ice cream in 2 hours!!! WOWZER!
After the tour, I definitely couldn’t wait to get some tasting done! hehe
We were also going to do some judging! Before the event, we were asked to come up with an ice cream flavor so that Harry’s could make it and we could taste and judge which flavor we loved! Before this, I never knew how ice cream was judged in a professional setting! There were three criteria for judging : flavor & aroma, texture & body, and presentation!
Jenny is the official taster at Harry’s! She has the best job in the world of making sure all the ice cream is of the right taste, consistency and appearance! She explained to us the process of judging at an ice cream competition and then the tasting began!
First up, the three Harry’s ice cream flavours! My favorite of the day is the Pavlova! It had bits of crushed meringue in it and every bite had lots of it! Gave it a really good texture and of course the flavours were spot on! Mmmmm
Then it was time to taste the flavor we each come up with! I was super excited!!! Everyone had such great flavours and totally different too!
The flavor I came up with was inspired by one of my favorite desserts of all time : the baklava! And if you don’t already know, I love pistachio! So when I was given the chance to come up with an ice cream flavour, I just had to give this combination a go! Pistachio, rose water and honey! I was so glad they added more crushed pistachio on the top of the ice cream, not just for presentation but also for texture! It was SO GOOD! The people working at Harry’s are just amazing!
And guess what?? My flavor won!! Everyone liked it so much and it scored the highest! Whoopeedoo! hehe I was so surprised but was so happy! hehe Everyone did so well though! All the flavours were delicious!
The best thing was : take home tubs for everyone!! We had 6 each to bring home! 3 of their signature flavours and 3 of ours! hehe I was so excited that I gave one to Peggy on my way home! hehe The mr couldn’t wait to dig in to all the tubs too!
I had such a great time learning about the process of making ice cream and of course being able to taste not just the unique flavours that they have and also the flavor everyone came up with! (:
Thank you so much Harry’s Ice Cream and Keep Left PR for this amazing opportunity! It was such a fun event and I definitely recommend you to go try the Harry’s Ice Cream if you haven’t already tried it!
Disclaimer : I was invited to tour the Harry’s Ice Cream factory as a guest of Harry’s Ice Cream and Keep Left PR. Thank you once again or this wonderful experience!
