Dirty Ice Cream gets a Make Over

For generations, the shrill bell of the dirty ice cream vendor has drawn excited patrons – young and old – to a cool treat on a warm summer day. Recently, however, with the availability of other local and foreign brands, the dawn of a mall-going public and increased health and sanitation awareness, the iconic Pinoy treat has almost become merely an aftertaste.

Not wanting the popular dessert to be forgotten, The Food People, Inc., makers of the popular Fruits in Ice Cream, created Pinoy Sorbetes. Among the pioneering concessionnaires for the brand is Yoli Nubla Celdran who, together with her sister, owns a scooping outlet at the Power Plant Mall in Rockwell as well as one in TriNoMa with her business partners, Resa and Ivi Francisco.

Yoli, also a dress designer, got into the ice cream retail business because she believed in the quality of The Food People, Inc. products which are distributed through scooping stations and kiosks, school cafeterias, and home dealers. For sisters Resa and Ivi, the TriNoMa scooping station is their first business venture.

“We were looking not just for a good business to start, but also a product we could believe in” says Ivi. “We were inspired by Tita Yoli’s success with her own FIC and Pinoy sorbetes kiosks.” They now also have a Fruits in Ice Cream station in Angeles City, the first of its kind in the area. Their Pinoy Sorbetes scooping station opened in May 2007 and was one of the first stalls to put up business in the then newly opened TriNoMa mall.

Pinoy Sorbetes, says Yoli, “is an exciting new take on frozen desserts.” With timeless favorites like avocado and ube, Pinoy Sorbetes offers flavors that are classics for every Pinoy. What makes Pinoy Sorbetes different from the mainstream brands is that it recreates the familiar “dirty ice cream” or sorbetes taste. Not surprisingly, the bestseller is queso, which tastes exactly like what many Filipinos remember from their neighborhood “mamang sorbetero.”

Aside from the standard flavors, Pinoy Sorbetes also features “sorbetes interpretations of popular Filipino desserts.” Flavors like Banana-Q with chunks of real saba and caramel bits, Tsoko Nut that tastes just like the favorite local confection, Tsoko Pinipig, Kape’t Gatas with a strong  barako coffee flavor, Melon, and Halo-halo make for an interesting and exciting dessert experience.

Other creative flavors are Guinumis – derived from the local coconut-muscovado dessert made from–panucha, gata, gulaman, sago and pinipig, and Mangga’t Suman – bits of suman embedded in a mango sorbetes base.

Resa and Ivi say that their favorite is Red Munggo, another flavor that is only offered by Pinoy Sorbetes. Strong believers in their own product, Ivi says “We eat it everytime I visit.” Nutritious as well as favorful, it is actually an upgraded version of the munggo ice drop that used to be peddled in the streets.

“It gets addicting,” adds Resa. While Red Munggo”– and many of the other Pinoy Sorbetes flavors – may seem out-of-this-world for the current generation of ice cream lovers, the unique tastes offered still hark back to what is familiar to Filipino tastebuds, making them pleasantly surprising.

“Many people, especially balikbayans, appreciate the Pinoy Sorbetes concept because it reminds them of their childhood,” says Resa. “Nobody is ever disappointed,” adds Ivi on the feedback from customers.

“It is something that a lot of people have been looking for,” says Yoli. She adds that the TriNoMa scooping station, open for almost a year now, has been doing very well. “We’ve developed a following already.”

Despite the brand’s growing popularity, “We are not out to compete with the big players,” Yoli asserts. Rather, they are focused on creating their own niche, making each experience of Pinoy Sorbetes a special treat.

Pinoy Sorbetes also takes dirty ice cream a step further by introducing into the market what Resa dubs “a twist on a la mode.” Aside from single and double scoops in cones or cups, customers can also enjoy suman malagkit straight from Lipa, Batangas with a dollop of Mangga’t Suman sorbetes, or bananas dipped in chocolate also a la mode. The innovative entrepreneurs also reveal plans to offer bibingka and puto bumbong with ice cream as well. Pinoy Sorbetes also modernizes dirty ice cream by offering milk shakes made from the traditional Pinoy flavors, the best-seller being the avocado milkshake.

While Pinoy Sorbetes mimics the taste of dirty ice cream, “we have been able to maintain international standards of cleanliness,” says Yoli. “It is the clean dirty ice cream,” she jokes. In fact, Pinoy Sorbetes, is being exported and is doing very well in Australia while FIC is being exported to Japan, which has the strictest sanitation standards. “We are bringing a Filipino favorite to international standards,” says Yoli proudly.

Yoli, Resa and Ivi, together with Joanna Francisco, are now busy with their latest business venture together, The Ice Cream Bar at Joya Tower in Rockwell. The ice cream parlor featuring FIC flavors aims to “renew ice cream parlor excitement.” The entrepreneurs are passionate about ice cream and say that what they do is “not only work, but fun.” Ivi adds that “we get tired from work, but we are not stressed.”

Pinoy Sorbetes has given dirty ice cream a much-needed make-over. With its unique but familiar flavors, Pinoy Sorbetes promises to revive the iconic dessert, making it a comfort food for many more generations to come. Now where’s that bell?