Remember the Dennis Lange poem, I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice-cream . As temperatures soar and ice-cream sales peak across the country, the month of May is clearly the undeclared national ice-cream month, like July, which in America is the declared national ice-cream month.
In the city’s hot, icy, sweet world too the I, you, we, and all are reaching out for the all-time, any-time favourite like never before. This ‘never before’ is evident in a clear change in consumer profile, in mushrooming of stand alone outlets, in introduction of ice-cream super markets, in the bountiful variety, enhanced quality, mammoth quantity, and in the unconventional timings of epicurean gratification, “at one in the morning.” In fact, natty ice-cream parlours, with a young, urban feel are the new hangouts for youngsters. But hold on, the silver haired too is trooping in good numbers.
“We register 50 per cent more sales in the two months of April and May as against the rest of the year,” says Hisham Basheer, COO, JSF Holding Pvt. Ltd., a city-based group that has three brands, Uncle John’s, Lazza and Skei, in the market and one that been in the industry for 45 years.
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Most of the changes that have come steadily over the last decade have been market driven, a need to rise to the demands of a well-travelled and well-heeled consumer. But it is the last two years that has seen the ice-cream wars break out on the city’s turf. An invasion of foreign brands, strategic marketing like home delivery, fancy discounts, and prizes, alluring advertising, new entrants, and the expectations of the consumer has left the ice-cream scene sizzling hot.
“The Kerala consumer is at par with those from any metro city in terms of awareness and so we have to keep abreast. That is why we have introduced new flavours. The trend that is sweeping is for natural, fruit-based ice-creams, sugar free ice-creams, and also for exotic flavours like yoghurt or latte praline flavour,” says Hisham. An astute move by them has been the introduction of payasam flavour ice-cream that will reach out to sweet-toothed purists who are at odds with savouring an ice-cream as dessert at the end of a traditional Kerala sadya , which serves banana and payasam as meal enders. The payasam flavour ice-cream will be as close to the real thing and novel too.
Bhasker Kamath opened Mumbai-brand Natural in the city four years ago and found instant success. The brand’s USP of using only natural products sans additives and packing it with fresh fruits found many takers. Tender coconut flavoured ice-cream became an instant hit in the city with over 60 tubs of half kilo packs being delivered daily to homes on any hot day in May. Abhijit manning the counter says that seasonal fruit ice-cream is what the customer savours most. Every week the brand introduces a fresh flavour with most curious ones being jackfruit and
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Sara Calderoni and Giancarlo Segalini set up Milano introducing gelato or Italian ice-cream in a big way. Today they are immensely pleased at the response they received. Twenty-four-year-old John Kolamparambil was drawn by their ad for a candidate keen to learn ice-cream making. As the store’s gelato chef he is busy right through the day, whipping up icy cream and trying out new flavours. On any given day he makes 15 to 20 pans, almost 90 litres of ice-cream and many a time has to replenish the pans. He has so far made 40 flavours in gelatos and 30 flavours in sorbets and introduced the blueberry, m&m, and chocolate flavours and the energy gelato made with snickers, caramel peanuts and chocolates. “Strawberry yoghurt and tender coconut are the current rage,” he says and is excited about introducing the doughnut ice-cream. “May is the middle of the hot season and the right time for ice-cream,” says Sara disclosing that for Italians like her ice-cream is savoured a minimum of four to five times a week. She has seen the change, the new ice-cream consumerism that forces her to keep her parlour open till 1 a.m. in the morning serving the postprandial snowy cream and sundaes to the night birds who throng after the last film show.
Watching the increased demand for ice-cream and the morphed consumer profile, Jaiprakash Prabhu has decided to keep his ice-cream parlour on Gujarati Road open 24/7, 365 days a year. “I used to close my shop during the rainy season but not any longer,” he says.
Adityaa ice-creams, a Karnataka-based company, has entered the market last year after seeing the huge demand. Sreeni Menon, its Operations Officer, says, “The Kerala consumer is discerning and knows the product. He is ready to pay for quality, which is what we offer.” Their products are made from pure milk with animal fat as against commonly used vegetable fats.
In this changed scenario what remains steadfast, along with major brands like Amul, Baskin Robbins, London Dairy, Meriiboy, Milma and Haagen Dazs to name a few, is the space for push carts retailing ice-cream at street corners. The familiar ring of bells announcing the ice-cream man, his hoarse voice calling out to patrons continues with brisk business just as the ice-cream parlours that have turned into hubs for happy family outings, coming out of a notorious reputation they once got tagged with.
Today the young and the old alike throng them. A few telling images from this new scene are of a 70-year-old, sitting by himself, gorging on a double scoop of tutti-frutti and a roly-poly family trundling in at midnight for an after-dinner dessert and ordering a second round, along with the first, before the last orders close.
Now how cool is that?