They were among the winners of 14 awards at the NZ Ice Cream and Gelato Awards celebrated last week which also saw a gelato named the Supreme Boutique Champion for the first time.
PURE NZ director Brian Thomas said winning the Champion Dairy Free Award was a good boost for the team in what had been a hard year for it and many other businesses.
"We are humbled to be named champion in this important category and the team are thrilled at the national recognition of their hard work."
They had worked hard to develop a quality dairy-free option for their lactose intolerant consumers and those preferring dairy-free, and the combination of mango and coconut cream gave a "velvety creamy treat" without the dairy.
He attributed their success to not being tempted to compromise on premium ingredients, keeping customers’ tastes and preferences at the front of mind, and taking ultimate care when handcrafting amd packaging the product.
It also won medals for its premium vanilla bean and hokey pokey ice creams, its boysenberry gelato, and its chocolate, roasted white and dark chocolate, and damson plum sorbets.
Queenstown’s Patagonia Chocolates also medalled, winning golds for its cremino, coconut stracciatella, dulce de leche, banana split, vanilla and cookies, mascarpone and berries ice creams and bronze for its dark chocolate and dark chocolate and macadamia.
It also won gold for its lemon and chocolate sorbet, and silver for its raspberry sorbet.
Auckland artisan gelato maker Little ’Lato was named Supreme Boutique Champion for its Speculoos Gelato and also collected the Champion Gelato Award.
The competition’s other top award, the Supreme Champion, went to Tip Top Ice Cream’s Kapiti fig and manuka honey.
It was one of seven trophies won by Tip Top.
The judges said the fig and honey ice cream was "a superstar in the constellation of premium ice creams. A clear standout with its innovative use of figs in a rich creamy manuka honey ice cream to bring together two Kiwi favourites".
For the first time the awards have recognised a novelty ice cream with the Novelty Ice Cream Award made to the Tip Top Boysenberry Trumpet.
There were also 14 gold medals awarded in the sorbet category with Gellicious Gelato Black Doris Plum Sorbet awarded Champion Sorbet, the fourth time it has won this award.
Overall, judges awarded 189 medals — with a high of 61 gold medals, 66 silver medals and, for the first time in its 25-year history, 62 bronze medals.
Chief judge Jackie Matthews said the 20-strong judging panel — which assessed nearly 300 ice creams, gelatos and sorbets in July — was delighted with the high quality of entries.
NZ Ice Cream Association president Karl Tiefenbacher was pleased with this year’s results as "after all the challenges of the past couple of years, it’s heartening to see the quality of locally made ice cream and gelato is better than ever".
