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2008 New Zealand
Ice Cream Awards
 The
12th NEW ZEALAND ICE CREAM AWARDS were announced
on Thursday, 29th of May 2008 at the NZICA Annual Conference
and
Awards
dinner,
held
in Christchurch.
The most popular ice cream flavour in New Zealand, Standard Vanilla has won the Supreme
Award of the 2008 New Zealand Ice Cream Awards. Invercargill-based ice
cream
manufacturers Deep
South have fought off challenges from all the exotic Premium ice cream
flavours, proving that vanilla is the heart
of
good
ice
cream.
The Supreme Award is given to the ice cream with the highest score across all
Categories, and this year the Award went to the winner of the Standard
Vanilla
Ice Cream Category with a score of 99 points:
The Supreme Award for 2008 went to Deep South 2007 Ltd for their Standard Vanilla
Ice Cream
Not only did Deep South win the Supreme Award, but they also won Best
in Category for their Standard Chocolate and Hokey
Pokey ice creams.
A record 206 entries greeted the judges during the days
of 7 - 9th May when the annual Ice Cream Awards were judged at the Massey University
campus, Food Technology Department in Albany, Auckland. Food technology students
acted as stewards enabling the judges to focus on getting through the large number
of entries. The judges
were Mrs
Kay McMath, Ms Joanna Boese and Ms Susan Crowhen of
Auckland and Mr
Craig Davis from Sydney.
International judging guidelines were followed with each ice cream being awarded
the maximum possible marks of 100 and from this points were deducted for various
imperfections in each of 4 areas:
 Appearance
defects
Body
and texture
Flavour
defects
Melting
defects
It was a mammoth task to choose not only the awards for each category (now 12
in total including packaging), but to find an overall winner.
The areas of growth this year were in the new class of Premium vanilla, Premium
ice cream (up by 16%) and Gelatos and Sorbets (up by 10%)
With increasing costs of raw materials and the squeeze exerted by the retail
giants - the challenge is for ice cream manufacturers to continue to produce
a creamy flavour and texture such as is known and expected by the New Zealand
consumer. While the temptation is to reduce costs at the expense of quality - manufacturers
who were able to maintain that full bodied flavour and texture of the dairy ingredients
really won on the day.
The first category judged (Standard vanilla ice cream) is always
a good indicator of the quality to come. If manufacturers can meet the challenge
of making a product with good mouthfeel and flavour in this category, without
the luxury of higher fat and indulgent flavours to give that premium experience - they
truly know and understand what constitutes ice cream quality.
Again this year, for the sixth consecutive time, the award for the Best
Standard Vanilla Ice cream went to Deep South, which
also won the Supreme Award.
The Open Creative Category attracted several new entrants with
some very novel ideas. The judges were exposed to peanut butter ice cream, bacon
and egg ice cream and Mexican ice cream (a mix of chilli and corn chips).
Children aged 8 - 12 years from Dairy Flat Primary School, accompanied by just
as enthusiastic principal and parents, came along to judge the Kids
Choice category. The children were certainly not afraid of using extremes
of the scale from "yum" to "yuk" to sort out the winners among 14 entries targeted
at them. For their efforts - the
sponsors of this category, Salkat
New Zealand Ltd presented the children with their own "Ice Cream Judge
2008" apparel.
Kid's Choice category was won by Fonterra Brands (Tip Top) Goody Goody
Gum Drops.
The Premium Category is where the higher milk fat content (>12%)
allows manufacturers to indulge their fantasies in a wide range of flavours.
Favourites such as Hokey Pokey went head to head with new flavours of Blue Cheese
and Pear, and Pecan and Pumpkin. The winner of this category, Killinchy
Gold Cookies & Cream, managed to combine the flavours of both cookies
and cream in an all natural vanilla ice cream with Oreo cookies.
The challenges of making a low fat product which has the mouthfeel and flavour
release of a full fat version is a test of not only formulations, but also process
control. The closest entry to match the perception of a full cream product - without
the kilojoules, was an all-natural 97% fat free frozen yoghurt made with
wild berry ripple manufactured by New
Zealand Natural Pty Ltd.
The Gelato/Gelati/Sorbet category attracted a record 44 entries.
Fruit flavours competed with chocolate and various coffee styles with the addition
of nuts, honey and alcohol for more indulgence. The category continues to grow
with consumers enjoying the superior quality of the flavour varieties possible
in these formulations.
The category was won by Kapiti Tamarillo Sorbet.
The Packaging categories were redefined this year to include only new
packaging which had been introduced during the past 12 months, plus
a category for Innovative
Packaging. Judging was performed by Tom Robertson,
Senior Lecturer in Packaging at Massey University. The Innovative category was
won by Fonterra
Brands (Tip Top) Ltd for their Big Thumb Stick and
the new packaging category was won by New
Zealand Natural Pty Ltd.
The New Zealand Ice Cream Manufacturers' Association enjoys its 81st year and
is testimony to the strength of the industry to survive increasing competition
from imported products. Being a nation of dairy consumers - New Zealanders love
their own unique style of ice cream. Healthy indulgence without the guilt, is
the theme of this year's Conference and remains the challenge for the supplier
companies and manufacturers. The Ice Cream Awards will continue to promote creativity,
excellence and innovation
in the industry.
 A
full list of the 2008 Awards is here.
Photos
of the 2008 Awards presentations and winners here.
 Back to
the Awards page |
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