An ice cream maker from the Overijssel town of Denekamp has won the European leg of this year’s Gelato World Tour, an international competition to find the world’s best artisan ice cream.

Erik Kuiper, who only began making ice cream five years ago, was awarded a 10 by the jury in Bologna for his honey yoghurt and raspberry ice with walnuts.

‘We try to be as pure and organic as we can,’ Kuiper told RTL news. ‘The walnuts come from our own garden, the raspberries from our neighbour, the honey from our local beekeeper and the milk from our own Jersey cows.’

Kuiper will now take his prize-winning product to the finals, which will take place in Rimini in Italy in September alongside the best ice cream makers from four continents. Italian ice cream makers have their own competition and were not part of the European title fight.

Meanwhile, the organisers of the competition say gelato and ice cream are not the same thing.

‘Italian gelato contains less fat than industrial ice cream, has less incorporated air, and is served at a higher temperature,’ they say. This means the product is not only more tasty, but has fewer calories to burn.