Lewis Road Creamery ice cream
Like bees to honey, ad reps swarmed around the tubs of Lewis Road Creamery's new ice creams (pictured).
Spoons at the ready, the lid on the vanilla was lifted. Made with heilala vanilla, it was deemed "subtle", "creamy" and "not too sweet". It was good, but paled in comparison to the hokey pokey, made with twice the amount of crunchy nuggets of deliciousness that you'd expect.
"It's like the old fashioned hokey pokey I remember," said Wayne. "The flavour and consistency of the hokey pokey was nicer than any other I've tried," said Kirstin.
Then came the chocolate. Made with 70 per cent cocoa dark chocolate, this was by far the favourite. I thought it tasted like chocolate mousse.
Others said it "had a seriously great chocolate flavour" and liked how it wasn't too sweet. But the real selling point that saw most of the office rate this their favourite flavour was the veins of chocolate ganache. As soon as someone's spoon dug into the fudgey sauce, others were tussling to get their share.
Finally there was the artisan rose flavour. A delicate candy floss pink, it came with a sealed packet of pink rose petals to sprinkle on the the ice cream.
I love anything rose flavoured (mmm Turkish delight!), others weren't convinced. Wayne said it tasted like the perfumed drawer liners, Kirstin said it was too sweet. Grayson said you could put it in brandy snaps and top it with strawberries for an easy summer dessert.
And while Belinda reckoned you could devour a tub of the chocolate ice cream if you'd broken up with your boyfriend, she said "if you were heartbroken you couldn't eat a tub of the rose one".
Handcrafted in small batches, the artisan range will later be joined by other, one-of-a-kind botanical flavours according to season or occasion.
The 750ml vanilla, chocolate and hokey pokey tubs retail for around $11.99. The 470ml rose tub retails for around $14.99.
FeastBox
The desire to eat local and entertain using as many local ingredients as possible was the inspiration for a Raglan duo's business idea that launched last month. FeastBox (pictured left) is the brainchild of Tara Wrigley and Rachel Brown who describe the service as "food kits for easy entertaining where local food producers are the stars of the menu".
"Being busy working mums makes it difficult to get around our local shops in Raglan and Hamilton to source the ingredients needed for special dinners with family and friends. We thought it be great if we could get all the ingredients for a delicious feast delivered to our door." And so FeastBox began.
Their aim is to support both Raglan and Waikato producers and encourage FeastBox customers to utilise their produce too.
With backgrounds in project management and digital marketing, the foodies felt well placed to execute their idea. The skill they felt lacking was technical chef experience.
"We knew we needed someone with experience to help us pull together a four-course menu that is focused on making local, seasonal ingredients the star. That's why we thought it would be a good idea to invite guest chefs to help design each menu."
FeastBox is giving away a special Easter teaser prize to a lucky Hamilton News reader. The pack includes a bottle of Whangape Grove extra virgin olive oil, a loaf of Volare San Francisco Sourdough bread and FeastBox Macadamia Dukkah. To enter, like FeastBox's Facebook page and share it to your page mentioning Hamilton News. The winner will be drawn March 15.
For those who want to order one of the full four-course Easter boxes (enough for 8 dinner guests), using this code - hamnews0316 - at the checkout at www.feastbox.co.nz will get you $10 off.