It’s long been a favourite at one of Cornwall’s most popular ice cream shops – Jelbert’s delicious vanilla ice cream topped with clotted cream and completed with a chocolate flake.
However, the sweet treat – which has been loved by generations of locals and tourists in West Cornwall – has been taken off the menu after a customer complained.
Jelbert’s – which has been running in Newlyn since the end of the Second World War – reopened on Monday (June 1) to a queue of eager customers.
The family-run business is famous for selling just one flavour – vanilla – in either a cone or in a tub.
The shop made a number of changes in order to open while still adhering to coronavirus guidelines – chalk lines mark out social distancing while there are footprints for customers to stand in when they order and ice cream is currently only being sold in tubs.
However, there was one change they didn’t expect to make.
After seeing the clotted cream ice cream speciality being made, a disgruntled customer complained about possible cross-contamination.
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Owner Jim Glover – who took over running Jelbert’s from his uncle and grandfather 40 years ago and is the father of Olympic gold medal winning rower Helen – said: “It was probably just a tiny thing that a customer noticed, but if we were in the wrong then we are sorry.
“As soon as the customer complained we stopped serving the ice cream with cream. I do understand people having their worries – it’s right to be careful. We don’t want to upset people or cause any harm with anything we are doing.”
Jim and his wife Rachel stress that they are observing all hygiene rules associated with the pandemic and as a result have even stopped serving the ice creams with a flake.
“They are difficult to handle at the best of times,” said Jim. “So we are now thinking of buying the bigger flakes, which are separately wrapped. That way two people buying ice creams can buy one and break it in half.”
And fans of the clotted cream-smothered ice cream need not worry.
Jelbert’s is selling 2oz pots separately, so people can spread the cream on their tub themselves.
Rachel added: “We’re just trying to do everything we can to observe all health and hygiene rules. We are even sterilising all the coins we take before giving them back as change.”
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Another first for the business is the introduction of cashless payment soon.
And, no doubt, in time you will be able to get your favourite vanilla ice cream, with lashings of clotted cream AND a flake in a cone.