Artisan ice cream maker ‘pops up’ for the summer at designer outlet village

Visitors to McArthurGlen Designer Outlet Swindon can enjoy a taste of high quality ice cream brand Rays Ice Cream – made just a stone’s throw from the attraction.

Hadi Brooks and her team have just opened a summer pop-up shop in the outlet offering flavours including favourites like chocolate, vanilla, cherry, peanut butter, strawberry sorbet and a vegan chocolate ice cream. The shop will be run by manager Gedi Cizauskas and his team until October 1.

Made in Swindon, the artisan ice cream brand now has a commercial kitchen on an industrial estate nearby and is growing in popularity due to its great ingredients including local whole milk and double cream with no cheap fillers. 

Hadi said: “We make our ice cream in small batches and it’s churned slowly for a short amount of time – so it’s not full of air. Adding some air is an essential part of the ice cream making process - it stops it becoming rock hard. However many brands have as much as 70 per cent air in their products.

“We are thrilled to be asked to offer a pop-up shop at the outlet which is so much part of Swindon’s retail community now. We’ll have 13 flavours to eat immediately and many more in tubs to take home, it will be interesting to see which prove to be the most popular!”

Tina Cumpstey, centre manager at Swindon Outlet, said:

“As a local artisan brand, we are delighted to welcome Rays Ice Cream to the centre for the summer. The fact the ice cream is made less than a mile from the centre and Rays has its roots in Swindon is very important to us; they will no doubt complement our weekend food offering, which already includes the local farmers’ market. We are looking forward to working with the team at Rays over the summer and wish them every success.”

Rays Ice Cream was set up by Hadi in 2011 and has two shops currently in Swindon’s Old Town and Royal Wootton Bassett. The team can make up to 150 flavours of ice cream, including gluten free and vegan flavours. There’s even a dog friendly version. For the wholesale market, they can offer up to 35 flavours. 

For more information on Rays Ice Cream visit www.RaysIceCream.co.uk