The latest ice cream to be topping the popularity charts conceals a very real difference. It's not so much chilly as chilli!

Chilli Red, the chilli flavoured ice cream, feels cool in the mouth - but then delivers a fiery kick as it hits your throat.

Pete and Hazel Hartle, who run Purbeck Ice Cream in Dorset, created it for a friend who was running a Mexican evening for local firemen. He had lots of chilli flavoured main courses but wanted a special ice cream to spice-up desert.

The firemen loved it, the company has added it to its range - and it is proving a runaway success.

Made from local milk and double cream, GMO free and with no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives, it's a luxury ice cream that has appeal not just limited to eaters from the tub.

Chefs, including Heston Bluementhal, John Campbell and Paul Da Costa Greaves have discovered it makes a lovely, creamy, chilli sauce and are serving it with savoury dishes including steak and seafood.

Demand was so high after the media coverage that followed its launch at Food Expo that the Hartles had to stop producing other flavours for a week to switch capacity completely to Chilli Red. Details: +44 (0)1929 480090