We may be ice averse come Christmastime, but Archer’s, Jesmond’s ice cream parlour, hopes to tempt locals with festive flavours, including an award winning Christmas pudding ice cream, ice cream cakes and coffees and a Christmas mascot: Archie the bear.

“We will serve many Christmas flavours including Cinnamon, Gingerbread and many more that will be finalised for December,” said Sharon Greener, the owner of Archer’s. “We’ve also introduced Archie the bear this year: a teddy bear clutching a 500ml tub of ice cream that you can come and fill with whatever flavour ice cream you want.” The bear, Greener hopes, will be “a perfect stocking filler.”

As the first ice cream parlour in Jesmond, Archer’s is very popular with customers. They have over 60 different flavours through which they rotate, with a minimum of 16 flavours on offer at any one time. And for lactose intolerant customers, they offer a range of sorbets.

“Our ice cream is Italian gelato style and made fresh in Jesmond,” said Greener. “The milk is Jersey milk and it comes from the Archer’s herd in Darlington, and the ingredients to flavour the ice cream are locally sourced. More importantly, some special unique ingredients come from Italy.

“I have a huge passion about quality ice cream and I’m meticulous about quality and exceptional customer service, ” said Greener who has a background in customer service. “And I want the enthusiasm from our staff to be infectious and to pass on to the customers

Looking back on the three years since Archer’s opened in Jesmond, Greener said: “We have a lot of customers that are proud of the ice cream parlour in Jesmond. Whenever they have family or friends staying with them, Archer’s is always on the must-do list. And we also have students that have finished in Newcastle but whenever they return to Newcastle, Archers is on the priority visit list too.

“We are very proud of our large fan base now that we have built up over the short three years of trading.” Greener said.