Kremi keeping it sweet - Ice-cream makers adds new flavours quarterly
Published:Thursday | February 21, 2013 | 12:00 AM
Garfene Grandison, Assistant Lifesyle Coordinator
A relatively new kid on the block, Caribbean Cream, the makers of Kremi ice cream, has been around for a little over four years but playing a major part in the world of dessert. With 20 flavours available at any given time, a new flavour is added each quarter, and the lowest-selling flavour for that quarter discontinued.
Ice cream lovers who grew up in rural Jamaica are very familiar with 'Creamy'- the name given to vendors who sell ice cream in these communities. According to CEO of Caribbean Cream, Christopher Clarke, that is how the company got its name. "The name Kremi is derived from the bike vendors who go through these communities selling ice cream."
Clarke has spent his whole life around ice cream, as his mother Carol is the founder of Scoops Unlimited, manufacturers of Devon House Ice Cream. A few of the best-selling flavours are cookies and cream, hot fudge, grapenut, stout, rum & raisin with the most talked about one being the Jamaica 50 addition. Clarke told Food that the flavour has even been copied by competitors with the green, yellow and chocolate swirl.
He explained to Food that the scale of ice cream production is a difficult business as the machines required are very expensive. But the flavours are extremely important. "Flavours can come from anywhere. For example, the Jamaica 50 comes from the colours of the flag. Anyone who works here can suggest a flavour; pistachio cookie was actually a flavour that was suggested by the customers, so we are always getting idea from different sources," he ended.
But after the idea, the creative process behind each flavour is no easy feat.
"After we develop the idea, then my production staff and quality assurance representative come in and do additional tests. This testing process is done on several levels with constant critique until we are able to find the perfect flavour," he explains.
For all who are afflicted with a sweet tooth, the featured flavour for this quarter (which began in January) is pistachio cookie.