Summers scream coolers, kulfis, ice-lollies, ice-creams, sorbets, gelatos and all things pretty and bright. As food trends reinvent themselves, so do flavours and textures. Creamy kulfis, frozen lollies, natural flavoured gelatos make the summer heat endurable. While it is easy to fall back upon the ice-cream-on-carts dotting the city, being a little adventurous gets rewarding. Picking your favourite flavour will become a tad difficult as you will be spoilt for choice with the sheer number of places offering not just ice creams but a whole new experiences to indulge in this summer.
If you are a person looking for some drama and theatrics, Azote at SDA market in Delhi is the place to be. Their liquid nitrogen ice-creams will have you floored with their out-of-the-box flavours. Friends Kartik Chadha and Sahil Mehandaroo returned from their stint at Le Cordon Bleu, Sydney, to open their patisserie and ice-cream parlour, Azote, with a lab look. From ice-creams in beakers to toppings oozing out of syringes they have it all. “We offer liquid-nitrogen ice-creams in flavours like the red-velvet, blueberry cheesecake and brownie-choco chips. All these are basically popular desserts that have been turned into ice-creams at Azote. We even do a chocolate sorbet and are launching a sensational butter-popcorn flavour shortly. As summers approach, we plan to do some fun ice-creams with mango as well,” Chadha reveals.
At Mimi’s Gourmet Gelato in Delhi, it’s not only about ice-creams. While Akshat Goel sells furniture by the day, he runs Mimi’s as his passion-driven delivery-model business. After having shuttled between the US and Paris from 2009 to 2012, he came back home to find the ice-creams on offer not very satisfying and started his own brand. “At Mimi’s we not only sell ice-cream but an entire experience. We try to educate the customers about what goes into their ice-cream and that what they eat off the shelves is not necessarily comprised all dairy stuff. There are trans-fats and vegetable oils hidden as well which we do not use. Also, we make small quantities and fresh batches and don’t have any stocks to fall back upon,Flavours can be made on demand for special occasions as well. We offer unique flavours like strawberry champagne, caramel and rum, honey-ginger with sesame,” says Goel. For summers they are coming up with sorbets in flavours like Melon and Mango. The use of liquid-nitrogen technique makes the texture of their ice-creams quite unique.
Deepak Agrawal runs PiccoLicko with his partner Deepak Bedi. After having run kiosks at the cinemas, Oyster water park and Gurgaon among others, they have a dedicated ice-cream parlour ready at Satya Niketan Market where they will serve warm waffles with ice-cream and also other delights. “Our strawberry cheesecake, chocolate deluxe, mango and coffee flavours are the top selling ice creams from the 14 offerings. We saw that premium segment ice-creams had potential. People are comfortable paying `80-`100 for a single serving. The price barrier has been broken. So we took our chance and it paid off. We serve either two small scoops or two large scoops,” tells Agrawal.
Inspired by the Mexican concept of Paletas or popsicles, Sudheer Grover and Pallavi Kuchroo landed up with the idea of an ice-cream truck while finding an ideal location for their venture, Frugurpop. “We started in Mumbai and now have our truck parked at various places around Gurgaon as well,” says Kuchroo. They keep updating their Facebook for the current location of the truck. They visit office buildings, housing societies and the likes and people adore the colourful truck as well as the visually appealing popsicles. “We offer fresh, natural stuff without preservatives. We have iced lollies and cream lollies. The kiwi, strawberry and lemonade is our bestseller and we are introducing a mango cheesecake flavour for the summer,” informs Kuchroo, adding, “Since the popsicles we serve contain natural fruit and fruit pulp, parents like to stock them at home for the young ones.” The Tiramisu and Oreo cookies and cream flavour are the most sought after cream lollies. They also prepare customised flavours for birthdays, weddings and such occasions.