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| Sunday, 21 July 2002 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Talk of the Town ; scream for ice cream What is the magic in the new ice cream people are talking about? The promoters are all out to make us scream for their ice cream in preference to even lunch or dinner, quipped a wag as I stepped into the Galle Face Hotel to witness the launch of `Cargills Magic Ice Cream' a fortnight ago.
And wasn't I happy to hear that this magic ice cream had all the nutritious elements such as trace vitamins that ensured a wholesome product, since it was made of fresh milk. And milk as you know is a complete food. Being made of pure, fresh dairy milk without a trace of the powdered stuff, (which in most instances has oils - vegetable oils); it also had all the ingredients favoured by the Lankan palate and was hygienically prepared via Cargills Quality Dairies (Pvt) Ltd.'s state-of-the-art manufacturing technology. And, believe me it was much cheaper than I imagined. So what's the catch you might wonder. No catch. It was the desire and generosity of a people who have been in the food and retail industry since 1844, to bring ice cream within the reach of all Lankans. By making it affordable they do seek to ensure the ice cream eating habit is not confined to occasions by a privileged few. That was not an impossibility. For this ice cream which comes in nine varieties - cups, cones, popsicles, icy chocks, litre containers - is priced from Rs 5 for a Cool', Rs 10 for a Magic Cup, Rs 15 for a Magic Cone to Rs 80 for one litre - to mention some. And as trays of the various varieties of the ice cream were passed around for proof of its taste and quality, I associated the phrase `ideal for the Lankan palate' to mean that it had just the right taste in sweetness - not too sweet. And being smooth and creamy it left you, like Oliver Twist, asking for more. And guess why it is called `magic', because in some magical ways (best known to the management and promoters) they hope to add innovations, realise their product ambitions and capture the ice cream market, and keep the Lankans happy - screaming for ice cream. That takes me back in time to the origin of ice-cream and how its eating habit spread around the globe - thanks to that famous explorer, Marco Polo. Ice cream had its origin in China and from there it was brought to Italy. And it all happened when Marco Polo visited China along with his father and brother and happened to see a frozen food item being sold in hand carts along the streets of Peking. That frozen product was milk - plain or flavoured with fruit juices. When Marco Polo was offered a gift of this product, he happily accepted it and took it to Italy and from there to France. From there Maria of France who married Charles 1 in 1630, had it brought to England through her chef.The popularity of this delicious product spread to the USA and thereafter the world over. The first wholesale factory for its manufacture was started in Baltimore, Maryland in 1851. The ice cream business began flourishing only in 1900 with the development of refrigeration. The earliest frozen desserts were, of course, made of snow, collected from mountain sides and sweetened with honey. |
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News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
My curiosity aroused, I sat and listened intently to Cargills Ceylon
Ltd.'s Managing Director, Ranjith Page extol the virtues of this
gastronomical invader, that is likely to put health and nutrition freaks
like me, to shame.
