We eat as much ice cream as Italians, with an increasing appetite for the exotic, writes Catherine Foley.
Our consumption of ice cream is well above the European average. It is estimated by Bord Bia that we each eat 10.5 litres of ice cream a year. The European average is less than 7 litres. We eat more ice cream than the British, the Germans or the Belgians. We are on a par with the Italians, who are world-famous for their love and creation of ice cream.
Small artisan producers, such as Murphy's Ice Cream in Dingle, Co Kerry; the Silver Pail Dairy, based in Fermoy, Co Cork, and the new Tickety-moo ice cream from the Grey family farm near Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh, are capitalising on this passion.
In Fermanagh, Gareth Grey and his brother-in-law, Steve Giles, decided to import a herd of about 160 Jersey cows from Denmark six years ago. They say the Jersey cow produces a much higher fat, protein and calcium content in their milk than other breeds and that this makes for a much creamier tasting ice cream.
In Dingle, Sean and Kieran Murphy, who started making Murphy's Ice Cream in 2000 and who have always sourced their milk locally, are now using milk from the traditional black Kerry Cow breed. Again, their aim is to achieve a richer, creamier taste.
In Fermoy, the Silver Pail Dairy, which produces the Corrin Hill range, also uses all local milk to great advantage. It has been manufacturing ice cream for almost 30 years. Another Munster-based producer is Tipperary Organic, which is based in Clonmel, Co Tipperary. Set up in July 2000 by Paddy and Joyce O'Keeffe in a small factory, the company prides itself on being 100 per cent organic.
The growth in sales of ice cream "is definitely coming from the premium end of things", says Mary Morrissey, a Bord Bia trade marketing specialist. "We are all travelling more, looking for more exotic flavours. We are also looking for ice cream which we would perceive as being healthier, organic or low fat. The consumer demand and awareness of better quality products that use natural ingredients that are authentic, has created opportunities for small artisan ice cream manufacturers."
However, to many of us, ice cream in Ireland will always be about HB, the Irish brand which was established 80 years ago by the Hughes family in Rathfarnham, Co Dublin. HB is the dominant force in ice cream sales, with 80 per cent of the market share. Now owned by the multinational Unilever group, HB created such ice cream classics as the Wibbly Wobbly Wonder, the Choc Ice, the Brunch, the Iceberger, the Chilly Willy and the Little Devil and Little Angel range, not to mention the Cornetto, which was introduced in 1975 and is still going strong.
A number of well-known people recall HB's importance in their lives in a recently published commemorative book about HB ice cream, The Story of HB, which is co-authored by Paul Mulhern and Kieran Fagan.
"The appearance of ice cream in our house meant it was Sunday or a birthday," recalls Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
The first HB ice cream was produced in 1926 to use up surplus milk. Woolworth's signed up and in time, it became HB's best customer. In 1933, the company produced the first sliceable one-pint ice-cream brick.
"I remember our local shop did a roaring trade in [ ice cream] wafers," recalls the Taoiseach. "All the time you hoped the knife would move an inch further down the block, and a bigger wafer would be served up. It didn't happen that often. Those shopkeepers were more precise than surgeons."
Playwright Bernard Farrell remembers how getting the ice-cream block home often involved "a ritual of such precise timing that you would think that we were transporting uranium" in "those pre-fridge days". To keep the ice cream cold, his mother would put it in the front room under two cushions on the sofa, he says.
According to Bord Bia, there has been a 25 per cent growth in ice cream sales over the past three years, and sales are expected to grow even further over the next couple of years. So as we lick our way to happiness during the final hot (or cool) days of August, it's worth remembering we are taking part in an activity which translates into €200 million each year.