Northamptonshire gelato firm looking for taste testers

Taste testing ice cream is a tough job, but someone has to do it.

And it could be you after an artisan Northamptonshire gelato maker revealed it was looking for people to help them with their new range.

Rockys Gelato has created alcoholic flavours such as amaretto liqueur, pretty in pink (raspberries with prosecco and rose) and black forest (with a boozy kick of kirsch).

Gary Rock from the family firm said: “When creating new flavours, we make lots of subtle changes to the recipes.

"Consequently we end up with lots of pots of gelato for taste testing.

"We can’t eat them all ourselves and are looking for people to help us."

Rockys was first started in 1882 by Gary's great-great-grandfather Eliseo Rocchiccioli when he moved to England from the mountains of Tuscany.

He settled in Shoreditch and became known as Rocky because locals struggled with his name - and the nickname has stuck with the family ever since with the surname later anglicised.

Eliseo and his wife, who had come to London from Northamptonshire, started selling Italian ice cream from a cart known as Rockys.

Every morning before dawn he would collect ice and dairy and, using artisanal techniques brought over from Italy, would hand churn the dairy until it froze. The gelato was then sold from a hand-pulled cart to the eager public. Eliseo's sons soon started helping out and took over the business, but stopped during the Second World War because of a shortage of fresh ingredients. After the war the ice cream business changed with mass-produced factory-made products and the family moved to Northamptonshire and Rockys went underground.

But with artisan ice cream and gelato now popular again, and with travel to Italy restricted during the Covid lockdown, the family decided to reboot Rockys with Gary, who lives in Overstone, and his son Ian, who lives in Broughton, working to bring authentic gelato to the county.

They've partnered with Gerald Bailey, the owner of Newlands Farm in Hannington, making them a gelato maker with an on-site dairy.

Gary added: “Ice cream in Britain isn’t the same as it is in Italy. After the war, ice cream makers in this country used artificial ingredients, vegetable fats and lots of air to save on costs.

"Our mission at Rockys Gelato is to go back to making ice cream the way it used to taste.

“We’ve partnered with the superb Newlands Dairy at Hannington who produce award winning milk and cream.

"All the gelato is 100 per cent natural and incredibly dense and velvety - just like you find in Italy."

To apply to be a taste tester, register by visiting https://rockysgelato.com/taste-tester/Message from the editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the highest standards in the world. The dramatic events of 2020 are having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers and consequently the advertising that we receive.

We are now more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you