Homegrown ice cream champions Davao chocolate

Contributed photo
Contributed photo

A NEW homegrown ice cream brand aims to champion Davao sourced chocolates as it starts to retail through fairs, bazaars and online orders.

“Right now, our orders are mostly from friends but hopefully people would learn more about our ice cream,” says Beverly Durante, who co-founded Masaya Ice Cream and which started selling their ice cream last August 11 at a bazaar in a Davao City mall.

The upstart ice cream brand which uses chocolates from Davao sourced cacao was put up by Beverly, 29 and Eikinela Gervacio, 30.

“When we were discussing what we would name our ice cream, we first thought of how one would feel or experience every time when eating ice cream? Masaya is a name we both agreed upon because it’s straight to the point, simple, easy to remember (especially for us Filipinos), and it has the word ‘Masa’ in it which is mostly our target market,” Beverly says.

Masaya Ice Cream stands out because of the very few ingredients added into it. “It is how ice cream used to be and how it is supposed to be,” Beverly said.

“We made sure to not include stabilizers or other additives that non-normal technical consumers would not understand,” Beverly adds. The ice cream is basically made up of fresh milk, refined sugar, and pure unsweetened cocoa powder from Cacao Culture.

Cacao Culture is a Davao City based social enterprise that seeks to help cacao farmers in the community by developing and promoting Philippine cacao and chocolate products.

The cacao used in Masaya ice cream is from Davao- the chocolate capital of the Philippines famed for the volume of cacao production and also for the quality of its cacao beans.

“Davao tsokolate is rich in flavor and it can stand alone, meaning you don’t need unnecessary flavorings to enhance the chocolate note,” Beverly describes the chocolate used in Masaya ice cream.

She says it took them one year to fully develop one solid flavor which is the tsokolate flavor. Their partnership with Cacao Culture was crucial in making the brand a reality.

“Davao tsokolate gives the edge to the ice cream brand Masaya because the cacao powder itself is our main source of flavor- raw and rich as it is from powder form to ice cream,” Beverly said.

She said the brand aims to champion Davao chocolate toward its consumers.

“Though we had so many challenges at first, it's also very rewarding to be able to finally share our ice cream with our fellow Dabawenyos. Our ice cream represents Filipino Pride. uniquely Davao, uniquely Filipino,” Beverly adds. (PIA)

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