During this week von Essen hotels is launching the contest amongst the collection's chefs to create the von Essen signature ice-cream, with the winning flavour being rolled out in all 29 hotels' menus. Each chef and their team will be tasked with creating three ice-cream flavours, which must in some way capture the spirit of the hotel. These will then be judged by guests during the month of June. The winning flavour from each hotel will compete against each other in regional finals, with the grand final being held at Hotel Verta, von Essen's first new build, and London based property, opening later this summer. Guests and locals are invited to judge the hotels' creations as part of a lunch package which will be available throughout the month of June. The chosen favourite will then compete in five regional finals. Flavours so far include sticky toffee ice cream from the inventor of the famous pudding Sharrow Bay; Lewtrenchard Manor in Devon has taken inspiration from their kitchen garden and have created Devonshire clotted cream with rhubarb and rosemary ripple ice cream and Amberley Castle in West Sussex is recreating their most popular dessert: Banoffee Pie ice cream, decorated with mini chocolate castles and fudge pieces.