Six golds, a garlic bread gelato, and a very big week!
The results are in, and we're pretty thrilled.
The 2026 NZ Ice Cream & Gelato Awards were the biggest yet — more than 320 New Zealand-made creations judged across 15 categories by a team of 30 food industry pros at Manukau Institute of Technology in South Auckland. The Gelato category alone jumped 40% on last year. Which is a very long way of saying: the standard of NZ ice cream and gelato is getting seriously good, and we're delighted with how our little gelato business stacked up.
Sixteen medals. Six of them gold!
The six golds
These are the ones that had the judges reaching for a second spoon:
Pistachio Gelato — "Judges loved this! Top marks for flavour! Good work!" Top marks. For flavour. We're not going to stop talking about this one for a while.
Cookies & Cream Gelato — "We loved this one! Great milk flavour." All credit to the Kaipaki Dairies milk doing the heavy lifting here.
Peanut Butter & Nutella Gelato — "Beautiful flavour." An absolute weapon of a gelato.
Mexican Hot Chocolate Gelato — "Perfect appearance. Well-balanced flavours with good texture. Creamy, rich & indulgent."
Chocolate Mint Sorbet — "Perfect appearance. Great chocolate flavour." A dairy-free sorbet holding its own against the cream. We love that.
Mango Passionfruit Sorbet — "Delicious & refreshing & light yet still creamy."
Little 'Lato gold medal winning gelato, Auckland New Zealand.
Behind them came eight silvers and two bronzes, including medals for our dairy-free and vegan gelato — the Coconut Raspberry & Pomegranate Vegan Gelato took silver with "lovely, creamy gelato with a good flavour balance." Making genuinely great dairy-free ice cream in New Zealand is one of the things we're proudest of, and it's nice to have the judges agree.
Three flavour-packed numbers that made the judges work for it
Curiosity is the whole reason Little 'Lato exists. We keep asking what haven't we tried yet? — and then we put it in a tub and send it to a room full of judges to find out. Three of this year's more adventurous numbers all came home with silver.
Garlic Bread Gelato. Yes, really. "Overall very good. Might be a bit too garlicky but the judges acknowledge this could be a personal preference." Reader, it is meant to be too garlicky. That's the flavour.
Rashuns Chips Gelato."Very good overall. Texture was amazing. Impressive!" Salty, crunchy, tangy, nostalgic — a genuine Kiwi dairy classic reimagined in gelato form, and the judges were on board.
Kiwifruit & Aloe Vera Sorbet.“A great sorbet with an amazing texture."
Savoury and left-field flavours are having a real moment globally, and it's a space we've been playing in for years. Not every experiment lands a gold — but we'd rather make something that starts an argument than something forgettable.
Keep watching the freezers in the months ahead to be able to try these wacky numbers!
A big week ahead
Medals are only half the story. Champions Night is this Thursday 27 August at The Glasshouse in Morningside, where the category trophies and Supreme Champions get announced.
We've had a bit of history at this event — Supreme Champion in 2023, New Zealand's top gelato honour in 2024 with our Mango Lassi Vegan Gelato, four trophies and Most Sustainable Business last year. So we'll be there in our good shoes, celebrating an industry that keeps raising its own bar.
Fingers firmly crossed. We'll let you know how we get on.
Come taste the medals
Every one of these flavours is made right here in Aotearoa, and you can find them scooping at our parlours in Ponsonby and Hamilton — so if you're after award-winning gelato in Auckland, or the best ice cream in Auckland, New Zealand more generally, you know where to find us. Dairy-free and vegan options always on the menu. Flavours constantly rotate, but we know these gold medal winning numbers will be no doubt becoming more regular this summer!
See you at the counter. 🍦