- 6 days ago
Welcome to the 9th series of Scran! We're back after a short summer break and we have another wonderful season ahead full of interesting tales from the world of Scotland's food and drink.
On this episode we are fully embracing the summer and talking all things ice-cream. A few weeks back Rosalind visited two ice-cream producers. The first, new kid on the block, Peacocks, on the Southside of Glasgow and the second, a Scottish institution, Lucas of Mussleburgh.
At Peacocks Rosalind met ice-cream entrepreneur Jennifer Clapp who has brought her own signature North America style of ice cream to Scotland.
At Lucas Yolanda Luca, the third generation of ice-cream makers told Rosalind all about the family business and how it has evolved over time.
On this episode we are fully embracing the summer and talking all things ice-cream. A few weeks back Rosalind visited two ice-cream producers. The first, new kid on the block, Peacocks, on the Southside of Glasgow and the second, a Scottish institution, Lucas of Mussleburgh.
At Peacocks Rosalind met ice-cream entrepreneur Jennifer Clapp who has brought her own signature North America style of ice cream to Scotland.
At Lucas Yolanda Luca, the third generation of ice-cream makers told Rosalind all about the family business and how it has evolved over time.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the 9th series of Scranton. We're back after a short summer break and
00:10we have another wonderful season ahead full of interesting tales from the world of Scotland's
00:14food and drink. On this episode we're fully embracing the summer and talking all things
00:19ice cream, which is ideal after the current heatwave. A few weeks back I went to visit
00:24two ice cream producers. The first, a new kid on the block, Peacocks on the south side
00:29of Glasgow and the second, a Scottish institution, Lucas of Musselbra. At Peacocks I met ice cream
00:38entrepreneur Jennifer Clapp who has brought her own signature North American style of ice cream to
00:43Scotland. And it's been like, my god, I don't know, 17 years later and I'm still here and I never ever
00:52thought I would be making ice cream in my own shop.
00:59At Luca's, Yolanda Luca, the third generation of ice cream makers, told me all about the family
01:05business and how it has evolved over time.
01:08It's just like the two wafers with the mallow in the middle dipped in the chocolate with the dark
01:16chocolate around the edges. So they've been really popular but the factory that made them
01:19stopped making them, I don't know, about six months ago. So we used to make them in the 30s and 40s.
01:25So we found all the kits still in the garage, so from the 30s and 40s literally. And we're back
01:30making them. I'm here at Peacocks ice cream in the south side of Glasgow. So if you can hear any noise
01:41in the background that is the multiple freezers. And I'm joined by the owner Jennifer. Hi Jennifer.
01:47Hello.
01:47Thank you very much for having us. It's nice to visit. I've heard a lot about you guys.
01:51But for anyone that doesn't really know, could you just tell us a bit about your business?
01:54Sure. So Peacocks ice cream started in July of 2020 during lockdown. And it started from my flat
02:01because I had no income and I had been making ice cream at home for a few years. And I decided,
02:07well, you know, just to tide things over, I will make a few pints of ice cream and then sell them
02:12locally to friends and neighbours. And it just kind of organically grew from there. After a few months
02:18of making ice cream in my flat, I then moved into a commercial kitchen space. And I was there for about
02:23three years. And then in August of last year, 2024, we opened here on Battlefield Road.
02:30Can you tell us a bit about your ice cream and how it's different from what you might have got
02:34before in Scotland?
02:36Yes. So we make what we call North American style ice cream. And that means it's a custard based
02:42and it has twice as much cream than you would get in maybe a traditional gelato. And a lot of the
02:48flavours are inspired by my Canadian background and the flavours that you might see
02:53might be more familiar in like Canada or America. So that means, you know, lots of delicious
02:59inclusions and swirls. And I like to say that it's a lot more luxurious than the gelato that
03:06you might find here.
03:07So how did you end up in Glasgow?
03:09So I actually came as an exchange student way back in 1999 and 2000. And I, like a lot of people,
03:17fell in love with the city and the people. And I went back home to Toronto and I finished
03:22my degree and I then got what is called an ancestry visa. So if you're from the Commonwealth
03:28and have a British grandparent, you can get an ancestry visa. So I did that and I just thought,
03:33oh, I'll just go over for a few years, have some fun, then go back home. And it's been
03:39like, my God, I don't know, 17 years later and I'm still here. And I never, ever thought
03:44I would be making ice cream in my own shop.
03:49And it's a lovely shop. So for anyone that's never visited, I've got a kind of pink, baby
03:55pink ceiling, nice tiles, green and white and pink tiles. And you've got your ice cream
04:00counter. You've explained before we started recording on your right hand side, you've
04:03got your flavours that will always be there, such as Trash Panda, Cookies and Cream, Gold,
04:09Raspy Ripple, Canadian Camp Fert and Vanilla twice. When I first came in, I thought, what
04:15is Trash Panda? So do you want to tell us a bit about that?
04:18Sure. So Trash Panda is what we call, it's a lovely name that we call raccoons in Toronto.
04:24So they are the creatures that are feared by Torontonians and beloved by tourists. So it's
04:30sort of homage to the raccoons of Toronto. And it's a pretzel infused ice cream with mini
04:36Reese's peanut butter cups, chocolate covered crisps and toffee pieces.
04:40I mean, it sounds amazing. Can you tell us about the other staple flavours? Because they
04:44all look really good.
04:45Yes. So our two bestsellers are Canadian Campfire. And that's a roasted marshmallow ice cream
04:52with homemade graham cracker and chocolate chunks. So it's like a s'mores. And that's a flavour
04:57that is quite common across Canada is the roasted marshmallow flavour. And I remember the
05:03first time I had it. It was probably in the summer of 2001 in Toronto. And it was at Greg's
05:10ice cream, which is unfortunately no longer there. But it's now become like a staple in
05:13Canada, a roasted marshmallow flavour. And I love it so much. And that's actually one of
05:20the flavours that I was just making at home for my husband and I because I missed it. And
05:25now it's become one of our bestsellers. And our other bestseller is gold. And that's our
05:30award winning pistachio flavour. And it's a caramelised white chocolate with pistachio
05:34crunchies.
05:35Now pistachio has become quite big in the last year with Dubai chocolate and just generally
05:41it's everywhere. It's in like cookies and cakes and cream. Are you finding things like
05:47trends like that? Do they cause a challenge with your ingredients?
05:51A hundred percent. I have been making this flavour long before Dubai chocolate was a thing.
05:57And I just had my staple pistachio paste that I was able to get quite easily. And I would
06:03say like in the last six months, it's really blown up and it's become quite difficult.
06:09So I'm having and I don't like hoarding ingredients, you know, because we are such a small space and
06:15it's not fair to other manufacturers. But I'm having to like whenever I see any extra pistachio
06:21space, I'm having to buy it up and then store it because it's just become quite a challenge
06:26to have that on hand because we make so much of it here that I just get nervous if we get down to
06:32our like last two or three jars.
06:35And are there any other challenges with some of your ingredients?
06:38And are you sourcing any of this stuff locally if you're doing a lot of sort of custard base?
06:43Yes. So we get all of our milk and cream from Park Farm Dairies, which are just over in East Kilbride.
06:49So just outside of Glasgow and we work with them, they make some of the best cream that I've ever had.
06:57It is so delicious and rich and creamy. I love it.
07:01How are you being received? Because obviously it's quite different from like traditional sort of ice cream
07:05shops in Glasgow.
07:07Yeah, most people love it and understand it. And they are used to, I guess, a custard base because it's what
07:13you would find. Ben and Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs, even Mackey's, they use egg yolks because traditionally
07:19it is a custard base. But we've had people come in here not quite understanding and thinking that it's raw eggs.
07:26It's not raw eggs. It's been pasteurized twice.
07:31And they don't quite understand.
07:33And we have to explain that it's just creme anglaise that's been whipped and frozen.
07:39But most people love it, get it, and it's like what you would find Haagen-Dazs in the grocery store.
07:48I'm glad you said Ben and Jerry's because as soon as you said there's like chunks in the ice cream,
07:52I thought Ben and Jerry's. So good comparison.
07:55So I'm now going to try the Canadian Campfire ice cream, which I'm looking forward to.
07:59I mean, it all looks amazing. It all sounds amazing as well.
08:02I don't normally eat breakfast and I've had a huge pastry, a coffee and now some ice cream.
08:07This is Canadian Campfire.
08:09Yes.
08:11Okay, so here we go. Canadian Campfire.
08:17Really good.
08:19So it's like, is there cinnamon in that?
08:22Yeah.
08:22So you can really taste the cinnamon and the chunks of like caramel are delicious.
08:28I'm going to try and get a bit of chocolate here.
08:30Yeah, I can see why you wanted to make that for yourself and then everyone else.
08:36It's really different.
08:38So we've had really good sunny weather in the start of the spring and the last couple of weeks.
08:44Is that crazy?
08:45Does it impact you quite suddenly?
08:47A hundred percent.
08:48So this is our first summer because we opened in August of last year.
08:52So we missed the summer and I was not prepared of how much of an influence a sunny day would have on Glaswegian's wanting ice cream.
09:01So there have been days where I've done a 17 hour shift just to make more ice cream for the next day and get the shop ready to open for the next day.
09:11Yeah, make ice cream around the sun shines.
09:12Exactly.
09:13And what about in the winter? Do you still find people come in and buy?
09:17I know you've got a takeaway pints little freezer there.
09:19So are people obviously buying stuff for home?
09:22Yeah, so we definitely sell more of the pints during the colder weather so people can take it home and eat it in the comfort of their own living room.
09:30And in the summer we definitely sell more of the scoops.
09:33And can people get the ice cream anywhere else but here?
09:35When we first started up and we had a commercial kitchen space, it wasn't open to the public.
09:40So we would make all the ice cream and then we would deliver it so you could order it online.
09:44Ideally, I would like to bring that back at some point, but we've just been so busy because of the beautiful weather that I just haven't had a chance yet.
09:52We do very limited wholesale.
09:54Again, that's something that I used to do when we only had like a commercial kitchen space.
10:00So we do very limited wholesale.
10:02We've done some for Through the House Coffee House who are in Trongate in Glasgow.
10:06And hopefully that's something that we can bring back more of.
10:10Do you have any other future plans in terms of growth?
10:13I would love to have another shot, but I think we just want to get through our first summer and so we can have more of an idea of demand and what it's going to be like.
10:24And to be honest, pay down some of my business loans.
10:27But yeah, I would love to have another location.
10:30West End?
10:31Maybe.
10:32I'm not saying that just because I live there.
10:36Do you find as well that social media plays quite a big part?
10:39Because I can imagine these are very Instagrammable flavors.
10:43Definitely.
10:44I think it was back in January.
10:46So it was, again, like in the dead of winter.
10:48We suddenly had a huge influx of new customers.
10:52And I asked people, like, where did you hear about us?
10:56And it was because someone on TikTok, the Southside Scraners, shout out to them, they had come in and they had said that this is like the best ice cream that they've had.
11:06And it's like immediately, like within a few hours the next day, we had people coming in from that TikTok alone.
11:15Well, thank you very much.
11:16And thank you for letting me try.
11:17And it's really delicious.
11:18Thanks for having me.
11:26I'm now in Lucas in Musselburgh.
11:28I'm with Yolanda.
11:30Hello.
11:30How are you?
11:30I'm fine.
11:31Thank you very much.
11:32So for anyone that doesn't know, this is an institution of an ice cream shop, but can you just tell us a bit about the history?
11:39Well, it was set up by my grandfather in 1908.
11:42So I am third generation.
11:44So currently it's the third and fourth generation that are still here running it.
11:48So my grandfather moved over from Casino in Italy, apparently walked all the way, although I think that is a bit of a myth, that story.
11:55And they set up a shop originally in the grass market.
11:58And then over the years they moved into Musselburgh and then we just developed what I call now Little Italy, because it's like all these little bits that are added on up the back.
12:07And this is where we still produce the ice cream.
12:09Can you tell us, if anyone that doesn't know a bit about the ice cream, is it very traditional?
12:13Is it how has it developed over the years from what it started as?
12:16Well, originally we only ever sold vanilla and strawberry.
12:21We eventually, I think maybe in the 70s, moved to selling chocolate.
12:25And then it took us till about 2003, I think, before we actually dared to introduce any other flavours, because we were really famed for just doing vanilla.
12:35So we do now sell, gosh, over 50 different flavours, not all at the one time.
12:41So I think trains, other people were doing it, so we were well behind the trains.
12:45And maybe 10 years after everybody else did it, we decided that maybe it was time to start doing some different flavours.
12:52Not too wacky, but some different flavours.
12:55And was it just ice cream or was it a sort of coffee shop too?
12:58No, it was a cafe as well, so it was always called the Olympia Cafe.
13:02I'm not quite sure why they called it the Olympia Cafe, but yes, they had very limited menu in those days.
13:09You know, poached eggs and toast, so that's definitely grown over the years.
13:12We would do burgers now and macaroni cheese.
13:16So these were quite new to us, probably in about 2000.
13:19Just to go back to the ice cream, it's Scottish milk and cream, is that right?
13:24And then you have obviously coming up with different flavours.
13:26Yeah, absolutely.
13:28All the milk and the cream is sourced locally from our local dairy, and the recipe has never changed.
13:35Obviously over the years, with the flavours changing, we get different flavours from different flavour houses in Italy,
13:40depending on what the trend is, but everything is sourced locally.
13:45So we've just done a podcast on Italians in Scotland and the love of Italian food within Scotland
13:50and the families that came over.
13:52So how is it that you maintain those links with Italy?
13:54Breakfast has been a nightmare.
13:58We obviously have to buy from the chains in Italy, so we get huge costs in doing that, but that's what we do.
14:05So a lot of it's bought direct from Italy, although there are some companies here that export
14:09and then we just buy off them.
14:10It depends how much we need to buy, but it's obviously more cost-effective to buy in bulk from Italy.
14:15And so you mentioned trends in flavours, so what have you seen that's really blown up in the last, say, six months,
14:22and what do you think's coming down the line?
14:24I know exactly what the new trend's been.
14:26It's been Dubai chocolate.
14:27Not that I personally like it, and I think it's quite difficult to make into an ice cream to scoop,
14:32but when we've made it, it's just, like, flown off the shelves.
14:35So it's definitely Dubai chocolate this month, last month, and the month before.
14:39So you mentioned the factory, so you're still making all the ice cream literally, like, just next door?
14:44Literally next door currently, although we are about to move to a much bigger new site in the next few months.
14:49So that's almost operational, but yeah, it's been made next door.
14:52There'll always still be a small hub here for making the vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate
14:57that we have to make every day, but we're moving to new premises soon.
15:00So obviously we're here now, but there's other places you can get the ice cream, and do you sell, like, wholesale to hotels?
15:07We've got a lot of wholesale customers all the way up, as far as Aberdeen,
15:10so many hundreds that we sell it to restaurants, cafes, independent little deli shops,
15:17so there's a lot of places.
15:19And our shop in Morningside, obviously, we service that.
15:22A lot of places, well, it's something that they can't get in their area,
15:24so hench, you might go to Aberdeen, but there's other, I'm sure, families in Aberdeen that make ice cream,
15:29but then it's just, everybody's looking for something a bit different.
15:32Tesco's have it, a lot of small businesses have it.
15:37The vanilla is still the best seller.
15:40We'll sell ten cartons of vanilla to every two cartons of whatever crazy thing that's on.
15:48And the vanilla ice cream's essentially the same recipe that your grandfather had.
15:52Yes, it's the same recipe now, it's just different machinery.
15:55Obviously, it was in 1908 that my grandfather started doing it over dry ice, standing there, studying it,
16:00so now we have got more modern machinery that mixes it.
16:04And it's funny, when all these trends come and go, people are still just eating vanilla ice cream.
16:08I know it is, but it's amazing, but vanilla, trust me, is definitely still the best seller.
16:14I still like vanilla if I go out somewhere to have it, I'll have vanilla ice cream.
16:17I mean, there are Malteser as a popular flavour sometimes, chocolate is popular,
16:22but vanilla, hands down, beats every single flavour that we do.
16:26I mean, it's probably a bit different because you've got the cafe and you do other food,
16:29but when it's really been hot and sunny, as it has been, I take it, ice cream's just still very much.
16:34Absolutely, when the sun shines, that little thing in the sky, all of a sudden, you've got a thousand more customers to deal with in the day.
16:44It's very difficult to deal with because you don't have the staff and it can be so awkward,
16:48but we just have to get on with it, smile.
16:51And usually you find that if the sun's shining, the cafe's not as busy,
16:54so you can draft your staff down to the counter and serve the queue.
16:58But yeah, the sun's a major factor in ice cream sales for us.
17:01So you've obviously got your cafe Morningside, but you're very much based here in East Lothian,
17:06so is it important for you to maintain that sort of Edinburgh link?
17:10Oh yeah, definitely. I feel we've always been part of Edinburgh.
17:12We opened that store in 1999, so we've been there for a long time.
17:17It feels like forever. Yeah, so Morningside, love Morningside.
17:21So we'll just go and taste some ice cream.
17:23We've got the classics, chocolate, vanilla and strawberry.
17:26I would actually probably now consider mint chocolate chip, toffee fudgie-wudgie and Nutella
17:30to have moved into the classics.
17:33Sorbets, that was probably new to us at the same time that we introduced flavours.
17:38Yoghurt, that's a new one. We do different kinds of yoghurts.
17:41What else have we got on today?
17:42We change them up all the time, so it's not the same.
17:45So if you really fancy something, we might not have it tomorrow because we've sold out of it today,
17:50but we'll make it again another day.
17:51So we are changing it up all the time.
17:53What is your favourite?
17:54Coffee.
17:56And yeah, so as well as the counter where you can buy ice cream and a cone or a tub to take away,
18:01you've also got a big freezer of stuff to buy and take at home,
18:04including little Cornetto-style individual ones. That's cool.
18:08Yeah, no, we've always done the frozen take-home packs.
18:10Obviously, the range over the years has increased, and we do lots of different flavours.
18:15It's harder to change those flavours up because of labelling laws.
18:18You've got to make sure you've got all the labels correct with all the ingredients,
18:22but that's a really popular line for us, the frozen take-home packs.
18:26I suppose vegan's the new one, actually. I never thought vegan would take off.
18:29Let's say that was about eight years ago.
18:31I saw that show in Italy and I almost wanted to laugh that vegan ice cream could possibly be the thing.
18:36However, our vegan chocolate and cherry is really popular.
18:39We've also got different types of fudge as well.
18:42There's loads going on in old-school sweets.
18:44I've not seen that for ages. Coconut ice.
18:46There's Edinburgh Rock. Edinburgh Castle Rock, again, I'm not seeing that for years.
18:50And then a big box of Dubai chocolates.
18:54Okay.
18:56There we go.
18:58So this is pistachio, did you say?
18:59That's pistachio.
19:01So it's amazing. You can see with the pistachio, you've got the paste or something.
19:06You can see through it.
19:07That's a pistachio ripple, that one that's out today.
19:11That's really nice.
19:12You've got so many different types of pistachios.
19:14Well, 10%, 20%, 70%, this pistachio from this place, pistachio from Sicily.
19:20You know, they get so many different types.
19:22When you go to the show, you can get a whole cabinet.
19:25Pistachio is so expensive that you could end up costing you an absolute fortune to make a scoop of pistachio.
19:31So you need to do something as well that's cost-effective.
19:33So putting the paste through it makes it...
19:35The ripple through it, it just is a different way of making it, but it's, I'm not sure what pistachio that is that we've got in it, what percentage.
19:43This tastes really good.
19:45And the vegan one's lovely as well.
19:46Yeah, no, the vegan chocolate, honestly, it's so good, that.
19:49Really tasty.
19:49You wouldn't know that it was vegan.
19:50No.
19:50So it's the cherry, cherry ripple.
19:53And it's got dark chocolate through it.
19:54It's a really nice cherry ripple.
19:56It's really, really tasty cherry.
19:58It's like sour cherry, it's really nice.
19:59But you've still got the creaminess there somehow.
20:01So yeah, you wouldn't know, which is, if you're not vegan, probably key.
20:06You were just saying off mic there that your sister's now making chocolate wafers.
20:09Yes, we make chocolate wafers, nougat wafers.
20:12It's just like the two wafers with the mallow in the middle dipped in the chocolate, with the dark chocolate around the edges.
20:17So they've been really popular, but the factory that made them stopped making them, I don't know, about six months ago.
20:23So we used to make them in the 30s and 40s.
20:26So we found all the kits still in the garage, so from the 30s and 40s, literally.
20:30And we're back making them.
20:32That's amazing.
20:32So all still works like how it should?
20:34Well, they're complicated.
20:36They're not complicated to make.
20:37They're just time consuming because they're totally handmade and each side of the chocolate wafers is hand dipped.
20:42So, you know, it's time consuming because you've got to let them dry for a little bit
20:46and then dip them.
20:48But yeah, we seem to be, we can't keep up with them.
20:50That's the problem.
20:51That's amazing.
20:52So are other places doing that too, or is it just your guys have obviously seen the demand?
20:57I don't think other places are making them.
20:59I think there may be somewhere in Manchester that makes them.
21:02I don't know.
21:03But we get plenty of people asking us to now make them for them, but we're not yet.
21:07We can't, we're just, we're struggling to keep them up making them for ourselves.
21:11Because did the factory close down and was it, no one wants to take that, like the machinery
21:15and stuff on to keep, to make them on mass?
21:17Like how come it shut down?
21:19I think, well, it shut down for making the chocolate wafers and they moved a lot of the
21:23production of what they were doing down south.
21:25So the factory was, the company was sort of, I think, bought over.
21:28So I think maybe that wasn't worthwhile for them.
21:30There were, I mean, you used to get them in supermarkets, so a box of six chocolate wafers,
21:34you know, you could go into several supermarkets and buy them.
21:36So you'll not even find chocolate wafers in supermarkets now.
21:40So it seems to be like a dying trend, although we're selling plenty of rum.
21:45That's really interesting that people are obviously still really quite into would just
21:50disappear like that.
21:51I know.
21:51Well, I think it would be like, look, has vanilla ice cream disappearing.
21:54How awful would that be?
21:55Yeah, well, exactly.
21:56Well, thank you very much.
21:57This has been delicious and I could come back every day to try a different flavour.
22:00Great, please do that.
22:01Thanks to Jennifer and Yolanda for being my guests on this episode and thanks to you too
22:09for listening.
22:11Please remember to rate, review and subscribe so you never miss an episode of Scran.
22:15And on the next episode of Scran, we'll be paying our annual visit to the Edinburgh
22:19Fringe Festival for a foodies day out.
22:21So don't forget to come back for some recommendations for this year's festival.
22:26Scran is co-produced and hosted by me, Roslyn Derskin, and co-produced, edited and mixed
22:30by Kelly Creighton.
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