Mario’s Ice Cream really is the best – and that’s official. It has long been Wales’s best kept secret…until now.

By scooping numerous National Ice Cream Alliance’s prestigious awards again in 2010, Mario’s Ice Cream has clearly licked the rest of the competition throughout Britain.

Founder and managing director Mario Dallavalle, a third generation ice cream maker based at Cross Hands, Carmarthenshire, attributes this success to his "passion and pride" in making ice cream that passes his taste test.

But he admits, too, that the quality of the "good Welsh natural ingredients" he insists on using coupled with his reliance on traditional manufacturing techniques are the aces up his sleeve.

Milk and cream are sourced from local farms where possible including Gwendraeth Valley'd Cwmheidir Farm, gold medal winners at the Royal Welsh Show.