Glastry Farm and Niche Drinks launch Irish cream liqueur ice cream

An innovative Saint Brendan's Ice Cream developed by Northern Ireland companies Glastry Farm Ice Cream and Niche Drinks, producers of Saint Brendan's Irish Cream Liqueur was introduced to French celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli during a recent visit to Derry.

The novel ice cream follows an approach by Derry and Strabane Council to Will Taylor, managing director of Glastry Farm Ice Cream in Kircubbin, county Down, to develop a tasty product specially for the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race stage in Derry, which ran from 9-17th July and was part of the successful Foyle Maritime Festival.

Will Taylor, managing director of the award winning Glastry Farm Ice Cream, a family farm business, says: "We were approached by Mary Blake, Tourism Development Officer at Derry and Strabane Council, to see if we would be willing to create a new ice cream flavour for the hugely popular community festival.

"We were delighted to be part of such an important community event in the North West and readily agreed to her suggestion that we use Saint Brendan's Irish Cream Liqueur, which is produced by Niche Drinks in Derry and is, one of the global leaders in Irish cream liqueurs. The liqueur uses fresh double cream from LacPatrick Dairies in Coleraine, county Derry. Glastry fresh cream is sourced from the Taylor family farm.

"I discussed the project with Ciaran Mulgrew, the managing director at Niche Drinks, who was tremendously supportive. We've been working on blending the liqueur with our ice cream, which is made from our herd of Holstein cattle on our farm. Extensive taste tests have produced immensely positive feedback.

The new ice cream has a very rich and tasty flavour. It's now been added to our product portfolio and will be available to ice cream lovers throughout Ireland and Great Britain. St Brendan's Irish Cream Liqueur is also sold internationally and this might lead on to more export business," he adds.

Glastry Farm Ice Cream is located on a family dairy farm that has been run by the family of ice cream entrepreneur Will Taylor for over 150 years. The ice cream business was launched as a farm diversification in 2007 by Mr Taylor and has proved a immensely successful development. It already supplies its ice cream to hotels and high-end restaurants throughout Ireland.

The new Saint Brendan's Ice Cream is included in Glastry's established portfolio of 20 ice cream flavours and three sorbets.

Niche Drinks has been producing Irish Cream Liqueurs, Irish Coffee and Ready To Drink Cocktails of the highest quality for our retail partners in Ireland, the UK, the USA and Europe since 1983. The company recently launched an eight-year malt Irish Whiskey and a blended Irish whiskey, both of which received gold medals in the prestigious San Francisco Spirit Competition.

Pic caption: Pictured at the Glastry Farm Ice Cream presentation with St Brendan's Irish Cream Liqueur are L-R: Robin Young, St Brendan's, Will Taylor, Glastry Farm Ice Cream, Hilary McClintock, Mayor of Derry and Strabane Council and French celebrity chef Jean Christophe Novelli.