Ice Cream Factory Tour — Gastrology

Award-winning Australian ice cream maker Harry’s Ice Cream opened its factory doors for an exclusive experience where guests got up-close and personal with the artisan ice cream makers and were also given the opportunity to create their very own bespoke ice cream flavour to take home.

The Factory tour

Run by brothers Lawrence and David Harris, and ice cream expert Tony Grech, Harry & Larry's has been crafting award-winning artisan ice cream for the Australian retail and gourmet market since 1994, culminating in the launch of their new business; Harry's Ice Cream in 2012.

The factory tour showed us how far the Harris family's frozen dessert operation had come since its inception back in 1994. Back then, the ice cream was made in small batches of 5 litres at a time, all mixed by hand and sold from a retail store.

Tony Grech showing us how it's done!

Today, Harry's Ice Cream uses the latest technology in ice cream production and highest quality ingredients to create its award-winning frozen delights.

With an expertise in developing complex dessert ideas into commercial flavours, Harry's understands that new product development is a continuous activity, with its production team, including specialist Product Developer, undertaking annual overseas travel to examine trends first hand.

Harry's Ice Cream sources all of its cream, milk and sugar from local suppliers, as well as the majority of its specialty ingredients, including syrups and ripples where available.

Everyone's favourite part of the tour was finally here - the tasting

Drawing inspiration from classic Australian desserts, Harry's Ice Cream offers a range of distinctive and iconic flavours: Pavlova; Sticky Date Pudding; and Raspberry Cheesecake.

Sticky Date Pudding

The delectable Sticky Date Pudding was our favourite Harry's Ice Cream flavour. The Sticky Date Pudding is deep in flavour complete with toffee ripples and fudge pieces, it was incredibly indulgent.

Raspberry Cheesecake

The Raspberry Cheesecake flavour possessed a light lemon tanginess and has buttery chunks of biscuit pieces sprinkled throughout. It is a well-balanced and beautiful ice cream.

Pavlova

We also tasted old-timer, Harry’s Pavlova which is a delicious vanilla ice cream with a tart passionfruit ripple and crushed meringue pieces. The texture of this ice cream is wonderfully smooth.

Flavour requests unveiled

The following were the 6 flavour requests:

Pistachio, Honey & Rose water by Food Made With Love;
White Chocolate, Mars Bars, Hazelnut & Peanut Butter by Never Too Sweet;
Caramel Chocolate & Biscuit Bits by Melbourne Girl;
Coconut Cheesecake with Biscuit Bits by Gastrology;
Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese by My Poppet's Window; and
White Chocolate & Berries by Six Inch Heel.

We were provided with some hints and tips about how ice cream is judged by international ice cream judges and the competition for the best flavour request was on.

Points were given based on flavour & aroma; texture & body; and presentation.

And the well-deserving winner was...

Congratulations Food Made With Love on that delicious 'Pistachio, Honey & Rose water' ice cream!

It was a wonderful time had by all. Thanks to Harry's we now have tubs of Sticky Date Pudding, Pavlova and Raspberry Cheesecake ice cream on top of our very own Coconut Cheesecake ice cream as a dessert option at our Christmas table!