Using Irish Rain… To Make Sorbet!
Harnessing Irish rainwater to make sorbet is a delightful innovation that celebrates Ireland’s natural bounty. Discover the creative process behind using pure rainwater for a refreshing sorbet, blending tradition with innovation in culinary arts.
This is the purest sorbet you can find!
Here in Ireland it rains so much that the air is pretty much permanently wet. But not everyone is trying to find the nearest sunbed when the skies open. Some are collecting the stuff that falls from the sky on a far-too-regular basis.
Kieran and Sean Murphy, the two Irish American brothers who founded Murphy’s Ice Cream in 2000, love Irish rain. So much so that they have just launched “rainwater sorbets.” Kieran says, “We wanted to harness something so completely Irish to tantalise the taste buds. Water is a key ingredient of sorbets, and we have the cleanest, purest water possible. So we’ve been collecting Dingle rain water and distilling it and now Irish people and visitors alike can enjoy Irish weather in a whole new way.”
The Sorbets come in two flavours – chocolate and raspberry. Dairy and gluten free, the chocolate sorbet allows dark chocolate-lovers to indulge their passion for the ultimate rich, bitter and aromatic taste experience combined with pure Dingle rainwater.
The raspberry sorbet provides a dairy and gluten-free blast to the taste buds of freshness and intense fruitiness thanks to Dingle rainwater and at least 35% real fruit. You can sort of tell yourself that it is health food, and scoff a second one. And, a third.
Crowned the “Emperors of Ice Cream” by food writers John and Sally McKenna, the Murphy brothers opened their first shop fifteen years ago and last week opened their second one in Dingle. They also have shops in Wicklow Street, Dublin and in Killarney.
The Murphy brothers are a bit weird about the stuff they hawk. They make it all themselves. And by “make it themselves” they mean that they even fish salt out of the sea themselves for their products.
For their ice-cream, they don’t use colourings, flavourings, or powdered milk. They collect farm milk, lots of local cream, free range eggs, and organic sugar. Then they toast, simmer, bake, and extract real ingredients. They temper chocolate, infuse alcohol, and scrape vanilla beans by hand. Phew, we are all happy to leave the hard work to these food lunatics, and sit back and eat what they put in front of us.
So, we will have some of that rain sorbet thanks. Better make it two, because you know, it’s mostly water.