I scream, you scream and we all scream for Shaili’s Ice-cream!I scream, you scream and we all scream for Shaili’s Ice-cream!

A young food entrepreneuris making waves in Ahmedabad in Gujarat the ice-cream capital of India with her variety of traditional and contemporary ice-cream products to suit every palate

Ice-cream has always been a major part of Shaili’s life before and after marriage, owing to the fact that her father, her husband and her father-in-law love it. Growing up, she would see her mother prepare ice-creams and her father sneaking into the kitchen to have his fill!Post marriage, every time she travelled to a new city, no matter the season or the time of the day, both, her husband and father-in-law, would go hunting for ice-cream. It made them happy. Over time, she started equating ice-cream with happiness.

Story behind the business

Shaili Mehta has always been making ice-creams for her family and friends. A very dear friend pushed her into starting this business and sharing her creativity with the rest of the city. Shaili avers “Ice-cream is the perfect comfort food and yet there is so much scope for adventure when it comes to new and unique flavours. When my friend suggested that I start this, I was excited by the possibilities this presented. Besides, what better business to be in, than one that makes peoplehappy?”

So in this way armed with no degree in ice-cream making but simply a strong desire to ‘make people happy’ and banking on the experience-sharing of her mother who used to prepare ice-creams under the Anando brand around 45 years back Shaili stepped into the cold yet exciting ice-cream business! 

 

Other ventures

Alongside ice-creams, Shaili also prepares shrikhand; and hold your breath runs a trading company for construction materials (Pyramid Enterprises) – food and construction … quite a weird combo, eh? But like she transparently shares “It was my construction material trade that lent me the confidence to run my own business.” What she thoroughly enjoys preparing is ‘Kesar Elaichi Shrikhand’ whose recipe is simple but whose process demands a lot of precision

Product array

From a time when she offered only three ice-cream flavours - Seasonal Sitafal, Blueberry and Sea Salt and Decadent Chocolate; today Shaili has on her menu card around 12 flavours of ice-cream, excluding the vegan and sugar-free options. This list is continuously being strengthened. The thrust is on offering a blend of traditional and contemporary flavours to suit all palates. So in sync with the same, some of the flavours on offer are - Rose Pistachio, Badam Pista Kesar, Malai, Raspberry Lemon, Cookies and Cream, Coffee Caramel et al.

When it comes to the healthy variants of ice-creams there’s a wide arena of sugar-free and vegan options available as Shaili strongly believes that “There are a lot of people who cannot consume sugar or dairy and we don’t want them to feel deprived of the simple joy of eating anice-cream”.

 

Festive hamper

For Diwali Shaili is looking at offering festive and practical hampers in sync with the ‘new normal’. These would include a decorated ice box with glass jars of ice-cream curated to the specifications of each client.

 

In the pipeline…

Shaili is working on bringing an even larger range of ice-creams for her customers alongside expanding the current product range. But everything’s hush-hush at the moment!

Shaili concludes with a meaningful message “Well, it may sound like a cliché but follow your passion and do what comes to you naturally. That makes life more fun… and hey while you’re at it, don’t forget to have a scoop of ice-cream!”

 

 

Best Seller Recipe: Malai Ice-cream

Ingredients:

 

Milk - 2 litres 

 Sugar - 200 Grams

Cream - 200 Grams

Custard Powder – One Teaspoon (melted in cold milk)

 

Method:

 

1. Take half-a-cup of milk and add custard powder to it
2. Heat the remaining milk; add sugar and custard powder to it; and boil it until halved
3. Cool it completely and then add cream and mix well
4. Run it through the ice-cream machine and your Malai Ice-cream is ready!