Minghella History
Minghella Ltd is a rare company: a family business of ice cream manufacturers, suppliers and distributors, which combines traditional creativity with modern professionalism.
Established in 1950 by master
gelatiere Edward Minghella and his wife, Gloria, the company began in modest premises in Ryde, the gateway to the
beautiful Isle of Wight which is still its home.
From the start, Edward's ambition was simple: "I wanted to sell something I could be proud of, something I could have a passion for," he says. And, of course, for him that meant nothing short of making the best ice cream in the world.
Even in the 1950s, Edward was always passionately interested in nutrition. He refused to use artificial ingredients long before there was any real concern about the additives in food. Instead, he chose to use fresh Isle of Wight milk and cream, reasoning that less traffic together with the stretch of water between the Island and mainland UK would offer some protection from pollution, so that cows reared in the lovely, oxygen-rich air must be eating cleaner grass and therefore producing fresher milk. He insisted on unrefined brown sugar for similar reasons: the less done to the ingredients before they were included in his recipes, the 'purer' the result. Some stabiliser is necessary to ensure that the product remains in tip-top condition until it reaches the customer, but Edward's recipe - the one we still use today - specifies as little as possible - less than ½ of one percent! - and of course it is entirely natural. There are no artificial additives in his recipes - no artificial colours or flavours or preservatives - and all the flavour comes from the delicious ingredients themselves. For Edward always used only the finest ingredients he could find, arguing that unless you put the best things in, you can't expect to get the best out. Again, a simple philosophy that works and the one we still follow to this day.
As well as a passion for 'the best', Edward always
loved to experiment in the search for new tastes. At a
time when ice cream in this country was usually eaten in one flavour only (white!), Edward tried using espresso
coffee, real strawberries, nuts and liqueurs to create tempting new flavours.
The national and international awards started to arrive and his reputation soon grew. Although at first the only way a would-be customer could enjoy Minghella Ice Cream was to buy them from one of Edward's small fleet of vans, every day there would be groups of local people and holiday makers waiting on street corners for them to pass by. The cafe and restaurant in Ryde High Street, where Gloria and her mother, Louisa, prepared beautifully cooked home-made food, was inundated with people clamouring to try Edward's latest creation.