A NEW sweet treat for many Dabawenyos can be found at the 3rd level of Gaisano Mall of Davao.
Ice cream filled donut sandwiches has been a hit in the United States (US) and it took an enterprising lady to put an investment and establish a store which sells ice cream filled donuts.
Named Donice (from Donut and Ice Cream), the store offers numerous ice cream flavors and concoctions stuffed into five-inch donut bread.
The kiosk (just in front of the Samsung Store in Gaisano Mall 3rd level) was put up by Cassandra Baylon her boyfriend Davao City-based British businessman Jaymie Burns and a business partner.
“I got this concept in America, it’s really popular there and I was thinking you know what, this would do great here in the Philippines. Because this is the first store of this kind here in the country,” Cass said.
According to Cass, the centerpiece of the business is a patented machine which warms the donuts yet retains the freezing coldness of the ice cream stuffed inside.
The machine which Cass imported from the US won’t make the donuts watery because of the melted donuts allowing customers to enjoy nibbling the donuts with the still intact ice cream inside.
For Donice, Cass wants familiar Filipino flavors stuffed into the donuts. These include the Mango Float, Ube Halaya, Ube, and Mango flavors.
“I conceptualized the flavors, we focused more on Filipino flavors, we experimented at the house like this one is good, lets add this one, lets tweak this,” Cass recalls the development of the Donice Menu
The store’s best sellers include Choco Fudge Brownie, Mango Float, Cookies and Cream, Vanilla Caramel and Ube Halaya.
Cass and Jaymie are full hands in running the kiosk, the 28-year old Cass is also well known in the clubbing scene as a DJ playing around different nightspots in Mindanao.
Back in the US, Cass appeared in the MTV show The Hookup and she also worked as a model in California. Back in the Philippines, she joined ABS-CBN’s Star Hunt last year.
“I think I’m trying to work out balancing life as an entrepreneur and being a DJ, the first two weeks I haven’t actually been DJing because I’m focusing on opening the business, But I think if the business becomes strong, my plan is actually to build a strong foundation where everything will work out good and efficiently,” Cassandra says.