An award-winning ice cream parlour has told how it is struggling to keep up with demand as the heatwave hits the North East.
Di Meo’s in Whitley Bay, North Tyneside, which has won several national awards for its flavoured ices, has told The Northern Echo how it is keeping up with demand for the frozen treat as temperatures soared over the weekend.
Rosa, manager of the family-owned ice cream shop said batches of ice cream are selling out faster than they can make more.
Read more: UK heatwave LIVE: Met Office heat warning issued for North East
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She told The Northern Echo: “We’ve been pretty busy. Obviously, with the heatwave everyone needs to cool down and they’ve been grabbing ice cream and with our two newest award-winning flavours lots of people have been coming down to try them.
“My brother has been making batches of ice cream since six o’clock this morning but once one batch is done, we’ve basically sold out before we can make the next batch.”
Temperatures in the North East reached highs of 33°C on Monday (July 18) and could reach 36°C on Tuesday, according to the Met Office.
Rosa added: “It can be hard to keep the ice cream cool when it’s this hot. We’ve let the staff wear t-shirts today instead of shirts and we’re making sure everyone has lots of water breaks to stay cool.”
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The popular Italian gelato parlour also has shops in Newcastle and a smaller beach hut on the promenade at Whitley Bay.
It has previously won awards at the National Ice Cream Competition and Good Taste awards for its varying flavours of the soft dessert.
Heat warnings are in place for the rest of Monday and Tuesday (July 19) with the hottest temperatures still to come. The first ever red warning for heat is in place for some parts of the country with much of the North East under an amber warning.
Forecasters have warned of adverse health effects and delays to travel due to the extreme temperatures tomorrow.
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