Four Beaumont, Hexham's ice cream flavours reviewed

Admittedly, I don't know much about ice cream, but I was delighted when Claire Harijan, the owner of new ice cream parlour Four Beaumont, invited me to try some.  

There's no better way to start a sunny Friday morning than trying various flavours of ice cream with a view of Hexham Abbey and watching the people go by.

The menu at Four Beaumont. Chocolate with salted caramel has been replaced with cookies and cream (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Claire, who also owns Marketplace Coffee, said one of her favourite flavours is the Madagascan vanilla bean, and I was curious to see how the flavours weighed up against other brands.

Both businesses only use compostable packaging and wooden spoons, scoring extra brownie points. 

I started by sampling the very unique espresso flavour. I was slightly sceptical to try this one, but I'm glad Claire encouraged me to give it a go.

Espresso, strawberry, vanilla, lemon swirl, cookies and cream (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

This one isn't for the kids and I am not a coffee ice cream enthusiast, however, even for me, it was still tasty.

Generally, I find coffee ice cream overpowering and bitter, yet this was smooth and not overwhelming, but the espresso flavour was still striking.

I tried a filter coffee with the vegan ice creams, caramelised biscuit and rhubarb and raspberry, and the raspberry and sorrel sorbet (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Next was strawberry, which was fresh, fruity and had lots of flavour.

Classic vanilla is not my favourite at the best of times, but it was creamy and definitely had more flavour than certain brands I've tried before.

The highlight and my personal favourite was the Sicilian lemon swirl - even just hearing the name I knew it would be my favourite. I was correct - it had a zingy lemon sauce running through it which I could've eaten a full tub of, but I had too many other flavours to try. Also the perfect summer flavour!

Cookies and cream was next on the list. Although not my go-to flavour, it still deserves a mention for balancing flavours well and avoiding the common mistake of just tasting of sugar. The cookies were sweet enough without being too much.

The banoffee and salted caramel fudge flavours (Image: Natalie Finnigan)

Then it came to the vegan ice cream options - rhubarb and raspberry and caramelised Biscoff.

Truthfully, I wouldn't have noticed they were any different to the dairy ice creams if Claire hadn't told me - they were still as flavourful and creamy as those I'd already tried.

The sorbet, raspberry and sorrel, was a great way to cleanse the palate. It was fresh, fruity and creamy. 

Claire also let me try the banoffee flavour and the salted caramel fudge - another strong contender for my favourite, yet just missing out to lemon swirl.

The banoffee ice cream was too heavy for me personally, although, with chunks of toffee and tonnes of flavour, it is definitely worth trying if you like toffee and banana.

Salted caramel fudge just missed out on the top - it was delicious, but I prefer a fruity ice cream and the Sicilian lemon swirl was too zingy to beat. My 10 out of 10 winner. I highly recommend a visit to find your very own favourite.