Desserts aren’t made to just be consumed, they’re meant to be devoured with a sense of pleasure. Handcrafted, artisanal ice creams make this pleasure very accessible and easy, especially since health is one of their foremost priorities as their use of organic ingredients safeguards them from the dangers of mass production. Homegrown ice cream brands in India have some of the most creative, imaginative flavours. Here is a list of some artisanal ice cream brands for your experimentation.
Shmoozies
Shmoozies is a hand-crafted ice cream brand based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Tucked away in the canopy covered, sunlight filtered streets of Anna Nagar East, this romantic little haunt sells fruit flavoured popsicles, sweet sorbets, waffle cones and scoops of rich, chocolatey, nutty, floral flavours. Buttered walnut candy, banoffee pie cream, peach cobbler, callebaut brownie, butterscotch almond brittle and apple cinnamon streusel are just some of the assortments they offer. They also have a palette inspired by Indian roots — chai spice cream, sitaphal and mango scoops and sugarcane sorbet cater to evoking nostalgia and childhood memories among regional dessert lovers.
Find more on our conversation with its founder here.
Indu Ice Cream
Indu Ice Cream is an artisanal homegrown ice cream brand based in Mumbai. It was started by Saloni Kukreja, a chef widely known for her creative food themed content on Instagram. The most striking aspect of this brand is certainly its packaging — the ice creams are enveloped in colourful block prints, sourced from Jaipur. Indian roots mean the world to Indu Ice Creams, whose name itself is inspired by the great Indus Valley. Stay tuned for our insightful interview with Saloni Kukreja, which will be out soon.
Get-a-Whey Desserts
This label of handcrafted ice creams is unique for its use of fresh skimmed milk from free range cows, whey protein from New Zealand, natural flavours and Erythritol — an organic sweetener with zero calories and sugars, found in melons and grapes. They offer monthly subscriptions, which allows consumers to be consistent with their intake of healthy ice cream as opposed to manufactured ice cream. Keto Very Berry, Keto Belgian Chocolate and Coffee Roasted Almond are some of the flavours they offer.
Ulo Ice Cream
Ulo calls itself curiously crafted. Located in Indiranagar, Bangalore, and the people at Ulo found themselves creatively experimenting with homemade ice cream during the advent of the pandemic. Their Christmas-based limited edition flavours of ice cream sound most inviting — maple syrup, stewed apples and oat crumble. Since an aspect of the message they’re trying to convey is that the best desserts need to be served with a side of nostalgia, Ulo’s flavours include paalada payasam ice cream, malten combat and mannari.
The Fat Little Penguin
Located in Kolkata, The Fat Little Penguin offers a range of desserts, such as Twix bars, reimagined Ferrero Rocher, and ice cream sandwiches, not just ice cream. They churn their ice cream at their store in Kolkata and serve it freshly made to their customers. Scoops to tubs of all sizes, waffle bowls to sprinkles and toppings, this is the only outlet where you can see all the live action, sample all their flavours, interact with them, and directly pick up what you need.
Words Neeraja Srinivasan
Date 10-07-2023