Willy Wonka ice creams

Candyfloss. Marmalade. Even doughnut flavour. Geet set for a summer of ...

SpRInG has sprung and suddenly we’re all contemplating getting the barbecue out and thinking about our first ice cream of the year. It’s amazing how quickly a little sun can change our diets.

But this year’s ice cream will be rather different from the usual offerings, for there are dozens of new flavours to try and buy.

Gone are the days of being impressed by vanilla ice cream dotted with little black vanilla seeds; for summer 2015 we can have candyfloss-flavour studded with chocolate, marshmallows and fruit jellies; or malted milk ice cream with swirls of marmalade.

If you’re worried about your bikini body, it’s probably not worth reading any further. But if you’d like to fill your freezer with some mouthwatering ice creams in the hope of a long, hot summer, here’s a round-up of the best — and wackiest — now in supermarket cabinets.

CADBURY DAIRY MILK MARVELLOUS ICE CREAMS FAIRGROUND CANDY CRUNCH RRP £3.99 for 500ml, most major retailers

THIS is a fun one — candyfloss-flavoured ice cream and chocolate-flavoured ice cream mixed with raspberry jellies, marshmallows, pink sugar crunch and a Dairy Milk chocolate swirl. Yes, it’s super-sweet and no, it’s not one for the calorie-counters, but there is something rather joyful about it.

THE LICKTATORS DOUGHNUT DISTURB CINNAMON DOUGHNUT ICE CREAM

£4.99 for 500ml, Ocado MADE by a firm that describes itself as ‘independent British ice cream revolutionaries’, this very sweet treat contains cinnamon ice cream, cinnamon ripple and doughnut-style pieces.

PIGS IN MUD LIMITED EDITION ICE CREAM

£2 for 480ml, Tesco A MASH-UP of chocolate and marshmallow-flavour ice creams swirled with marshmallow sauce and studded with chocolate-flavour pig shapes and mini marshmallows. A fun one that’s good for small children.

HESTON’S MALTED MILK & MARMALADE ICE CREAM

£4.49 for 500ml, Ocado and Waitrose BREAKFAST-FLAVOURED ice cream? Why not. Created by off-the-wall chef heston Blumenthal, this i s made with Seville orange marmalade and is sweet with a citrus tang. Waitrose says it’s flying off the shelves already.

BEN & JERRY’S UTTER PEANUT BUTTER CLUTTER

RRP £4.99 for 500ml, most major supermarkets THERE’S something about peanut butter that makes even grown-ups forget themselves, and this new flavour has it in spades. It also contains pieces of peanut butter cookie and has a soft, doughy core of the cookies.

CADBURY DAIRY MILK MARVELLOUS ICE CREAMS JELLY POPPING CANDY

RRP £3.99 for 500ml, most major retailers ICE cream with popping candy not enough for you? Well, this also has sugarcoated cocoa candies, raspberry-flavoured jelly pieces and a swirl of Dairy Milk chocolate. It proved very popular with the under-nines in my household.

LEMON CURD DAIRY ICE CREAM

£3.60 for 1 litre, M&S proper Cornish clotted cream is swirled with english lemon curd to make this new but old-fashioned ice cream that has just launched in M&S. Creamy but with a hint of citrus, it is refreshing and indulgent, and goes perfectly with raspberries for a super summer dessert.

BLACK VANILLA HIMALAYAN SALTED CARAMEL GELATO

£4.99 for 500ml, Ocado We MAY think we all know about salted caramel by now, but are we eating it made with the right kind of salt? This new ice cream, made by a ‘boutique gelateria’ in Blackheath, South- east London, uses naturally pink himalayan rock salt to make its salted caramel ripple. The result is absolutely fabulous.

BEN & JERRY’S SPECULOOS? SPECU-LOVE COOKIE CORE

RRP £4.99 for 500ml, most major retailers SPECULOOS is the european name

for what we in Britain know as Lotus Biscoff biscuits — those little, individually wrapped spiced biscuits that you are often given at the hairdresser’s to go with your cup of tea or coffee. Now Ben & Jerry’s has come up with a new cookie dessert based on them. The caramel-flavoured ice cream has the same gingery, cinnamon taste and a crumbly biscuit core with pieces of the moreish biccies for you to feast upon.

This i s an extremely guilty pleasure, but a very t asty one nonetheless.