This review is of our order from Varani’s Forum Ices, on High Glencairn Street, Kilmarnock on Sunday 17th October 2021. Enjoy!
So this was our awesome dessert after our meal at The Longhouse, a restaurant based in Kilmarnock, and you can check out our review of that meal by clicking here.
So if you are unfamiliar with Varani’s Forum Ices, they are an awesome family owned, local business who have been making artisan Italian ice cream since 1937. They specialise in making high quality, homemade ice cream, sorbet and Gelato (a dish I learned while writing this review is similar to but distinct from traditional ice cream due to the greater proportion of whole milk to cream used in its production). They currently have over 55 flavours on sale including a variety of Gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan options. In addition to the ice creams, Varani’s also sell a variety of soft drinks (including my personal favourite Barrs Red Kola) and also some traditional sweet shop options including another personal favourite of mine the Rhubarb and Custard chews which I literally cannot find anywhere else but here and I love them so much. Also on top of a great range of sweets and treats, they are located right next door to Katch, a great local fish and chip shop so you can complete the ideal combination of foods with a trip next door once you have you delectable ice cream.
So Tori and I have wildely different tastes when it comes to Ice Cream fortunately you can mix and match at Varani’s so we both got a 2/3 Litre tub and selected three flavours. So check out what we thought of our picks below.
Tom’s Choices –
Irn Bru
With this you can really smell the irn bru, it’s really pleasant. It does also taste like Irn Bru but not as much as it smells like it. It is very similar to the Irn Bru Ice Poles which had a hard Irn Bru shell which gave way to vanilla ice cream. They were nice but I personally felt like the irn bru didn’t gel as well with the creaminess and also once the shell was broken it melted and deteriorated really quickly. This does a lot better, a tanginess and familiar bru taste that actually blends really well with the ice cream.
Rhubarb and Custard
First off before I start on this one. Varanis has actually rhubarb and custard sweets, they are one of my favourite classic sweet shop treats and you can hardly find them anywhere these days so I’d go for that alone. But anyway this is creamy and tart and very sweet. I knew I’d like it because I always appreciate the flavour profiles of Rhubarb and custard but I had no idea how much I’d love it. Its tangy and just so incredibly delicious that I strongly recommend that if you get anything on this list you get this.
Cream Egg
So the first couple of bits I’ll admit I couldn’t really taste the cream egg but after that my palate cleared and I could really taste it. The creamy chocolate shell added some texture diversity as well as a delicious chocolate flavour. The soft sweet fondant core flavours the cream and makes for something truly tasty.
Tori’s Choices –
Pooh bear
This is my personal favourite, it has a relatively subtle flavour compared to the others. But the caramel comes through and is still delicious. It’s super creamy, and had a slight honeycomb swirl through it which really brings it up a notch.
Peach
It is very soft, more like a sorbet than an Ice cream. It’s very flavourful and very sweet but it doesn’t taste artificial, instead it comes across like real peach has been used.
Tablet
The tablet is also super sweet, a really strong caramel comes through in each bite. The pieces of tablet intermixed throughout add a lot both in terms of texture in each bite but also in sweetness and flavour.
You can find Varani’s Forum Ices on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so make sure and give them a follow. You can also find them via their website by clicking here. This review was written by Tom Neil and Tori Anderson so click on one of those links to check out more from those authors.
First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org/
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