The inside scoop on the ice cream shop with 540 awards – and counting!
As you walk into Dooley’s Premium Ice Cream in Apollo Bay, a quick taste test isn’t even needed for you to know you’re about to experience one of the best scoops of your life, and that’s because overlooking the cabinets is a wall adorned with over 500 awards that undoubtedly confirm it. Sure, expectations are already high with so many accolades peering over your selection, but you’ll soon see (and taste) why they’re instantly surpassed.
For father-daughter duo, Dooley and Alyciandra, the goal was simple; make good quality ice cream. With a dairy farming background, Dooley was no stranger to knowing the importance of having high-calibre ingredients to help turn his dream into reality. So in 2002, ‘Dooley’s Premium Ice Cream’ was born and three years later, Alyciandra came on board to help out before getting serious about the trade in 2007. Stints in Italy followed for both and by 2008, their ice cream was already up to competition standard – a testament to the sheer hard work and skill set of both Dooley and Alyciandra.
And that’s when the awards started to roll in, and evidently haven’t stopped!
That first year, they entered chocolate, mint choc chip, ginger and vanilla into what is now known as The Royal Melbourne Show and walked away with gold for their Mint choc-chip flavour. Since then, Dooley’s Premium Ice Cream has continued to show and place at the Australian Food Awards (AFA) as part of The Royal Melbourne Show, as well as The Dairy Industry Association of Australia Awards (DIAA), The Dairy Industry Association of Victoria Awards, The Australian Grand Dairy Awards and the Sydney Royal Easter Show, respectively. At the aforementioned Australian Grand Dairy Awards, they won best ice cream in Australia for their licorice (2013), vanilla (2015) and chocolate (2016 + 2017 + 2018). Their strawberry flavour has won gold at the Dairy Industry Association of Australia Awards (DIAA) consecutively since 2016. At this year’s DIAA’s, Dooley’s also walked away with another four trophies including, Sensient Technologies Award for the highest-scoring ice cream, the IFF Highest Scoring Frozen Product, the Roha Award for the highest-scoring product containing natural flavourings, and the Process Partners Award for the most outstanding show exhibit (small-scale producer).
So what’s the inside scoop to their success?
It’s simply staying close to their roots of ensuring only the best ingredients are used, which are locally sourced where possible. Second to that is saying humble and grateful. For all the deserving recognition from around the country, the community is never far from Dooley and Alyciandra’s minds. Accolades aside, they’ll never be too busy to support the local bowls, football and netball clubs, all of which consist of people who have had a hand in Dooley’s success as well.
Dooley’s Premium Ice Cream encapsulates everything that is great about ice cream; it is fun, decadent, authentic and unapologetic… and having over 500 awards to its name? Well, that’s just the cherry on top!
