Of all the places to have great ice cream, the North East of Scotland with its balmy North Sea breeze seems to have a fair selection of really good locally made ice cream.

Here in Huntly, Rizza’s has been churning out their family favorites for close to a century. Staying close to the classics with a recent collaboration into making a limited edition Black Bull whisky ice cream, Rizza’s has been great for those few and far between hot summer days, which seemed to have been concentrated back in April rather than August. 

The last time I went through, I queued up in Cullen for their famous ice cream, self aggrandizing as the best in the world! I tried a double scoop, one of a purple blueberry and the other just going for an old fashion chocolate, and while both tasted fine, though not necessarily complimentary, I think their marketing is a little ahead of themselves. 

Image credit: Portsoy Ice Cream

Then today, stopping in Portsoy on the way back from a walk to the scallop shell trail between Sandend and Portsoy, I tasted the homemade ice cream from their shop on Main Street and I would wager this is the winner. With very distinct and experimental flavours such as an anise toffee swirl (what M.R. had) and a lemon grass cookie (what I had), the flavours were really rich without being overly sweet. The natural scent of lemon grass had been infused into the ice cream, while small chewy chunks of a ginger raisin oatmeal cookie had been thoroughly mixed into each bite. The evening was almost warm, and a walk had made it warmer, and enjoying ice cream really does make you feel, even if for just a moment, that the temperature may actually be hot.