Swiss enjoy new caipirinha ice cream

Sao Paulo — European consumers discovered caipirinha, the Brazilian cocktail, some time ago, but its fame has spread in innovative ways. With temperatures reaching 35 degrees this past summer, a Swiss man produced the first caipirinha ice cream of the region.

“I love caipirinha and that was enough reason for me to start producing the ice cream,” says Paolo Sottile, 40, owner of Gelatomania, touted by Tribune de Geneva as “the best ice cream in the universe.”

In one of his stores in the Lake Geneva area, where he sells 100,000 servings of ice cream per month, Paolo says consumer response has been good, although the product is not for everyone.

“We would sell it to children but only with parental permission. Four ice creams are the equivalent to almost one caipirinha drink.”

The ice cream belongs to the French “sorbet” category and is too watery to be served in a cone.

He produces 20 litres of ice cream with one and a half bottles of cachaça, the 500-year-old, fermented sugar-cane liquor of Brazil. “The consumer can really taste the caipirinha flavour, a mixture of cachaça, lemon and raw sugar,” he says.

“I’m sensing a strong taste of lemon,” said customer Monika Buehler, who enjoys Paolo’s other innovative ice cream flavours, which include piña colada (with rum), curry, guacamole and polenta.

Cachaça exports are minor compared to the interest the product has gained abroad.

According to the Brazilian Institute of Cachaça (IBRAC), less than 1 percent of cachaça is exported. The product is sold to 55 countries, with Germany the biggest market, comprising 33 percent of the total.

In 2008, 11.09 million litres were exported, with revenues of USD 16.4 million.

Meanwhile, the Swiss ice cream maker Paolo is considering another innovative flavour based on a Brazilian drink: guaraná soda ice cream. If this flavour is realised, parents will be more relaxed sending children to the ice cream parlour.

Text credits: FoodBizDaily.com / Dan Vallada / Expatica 2009