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Mauds Ice Creams is an ice cream manufacturer with stores in Northern Ireland and Ireland. They have made in excess of 350 flavours during their 34-year history, the most popular being Pooh Bear's Delight, a mix of Vanilla ice cream and Honeycomb. They are the largest producer of dairy ice cream in Northern Ireland[1], but quality has not been sacrificed for quantity and in 2004 they were the first ice cream producer in the island of Ireland to be crowned 'Champion of Champions' by the Ice Cream Alliance.
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Their products can be found at over 300 stockists across the whole of Ireland, including hotels and restaurants. The flagship stores, Café Mauds, in Newcastle, Co. Down and Belfast, Co. Antrim.[2] The first shop outside Ireland opened in Windsor, England opposite the castle but in recent years the company have started ship their ice cream to the Málaga area in Spain.
History
Mauds Ice Creams was founded by John Wilson and was originally part of his grocery business in Carnmoney, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland. The ice cream business quickly became the major part of John's grocery store and on Mothers' Day 1982 John renamed his store, Mauds Ice Creams, as a Mother's Day gift to his mother, Maud.
Today, Mauds Ice Creams is made in a new production facility in Carrickfergus [3]. Two of its most popular flavours are Poor Bear (honeycomb and vanilla, which was originally called Pooh Bear's Delight, until Disney opened a store in Belfast and John decided not to tempt fate) and Belgian Chocolate (fine milk chocolate slivers in vanilla).
Awards
In 2004, Mauds Ice Creams was awarded the "Champion of Champions" award at the annual Ice Cream Alliance National Ice Cream Awards[4]. In addition to this, the manufacturer has won over 129 other awards for its ice cream, including awards for tourism from British Airways, Great Taste Awards and several times awarded 1st place in National Competitions. Awards of note include many Great Taste Awards including the covetted Triple Gold Star Award and listed as a Top50 Food by the Guild of Fine Foods in 2014. Mauds have also won 1st place in the Blas na hÉireann National Irish Food Awards both in 2013 and 2014.