2023-04-16 13:39:36
Eit all actually started with 65 pumpkins. The rich harvest in her own garden posed a challenge for Jenni Matheson. Because of course she didn’t want to throw away the 65 pumpkins. “Every night I tried different pumpkin recipes, from smoothies to cheesecake to ice cream,” says the New Zealander.
She discovered that a surprising amount can be made from vegetables. Matheson continued experimenting and eventually found that cauliflower makes ice cream much better than squash. “It has a pleasant texture without a dominant taste. That means it’s easy to create flavors,” says the longtime vegan. Family and friends were also enthusiastic about the cauliflower ice cream.
In 2020, Matheson attended a start-up weekend in her region, Taranaki on New Zealand’s North Island. At that time, she had been working in the internal sales department of an international industrial company for 16 years and had no other intention than presenting her ice cream to a larger audience. “For me, it was all about getting out of my comfort zone and getting to know other people. I’m not down with the idea of meeting a team and starting a business,” she says. Still, both happened.
24-year-old Mrinali Kumar also had no serious intentions as she accompanied friends to the start-up weekend. But the vegetarian immediately loved the cauliflower ice cream – Matheson had found a partner.
It tastes like milk ice cream
Two years of development and numerous consumer tests later, the founders of EatKinda have launched the “Strawberry Swirl” and “Mint Choc Bikkie” varieties. They are selling what is probably the world’s first cauliflower ice cream in the 77 stores of the New Zealand pizza chain Hell Pizza. At the equivalent of around 3.75 euros for 140 ml, it’s not exactly cheap, but the taste is immediately convincing: creamy, not too sweet. Instead of cauliflower, you think of normal milk ice cream with strawberry and chocolate mint flavor. The biscuit alone hardly comes into its own with the latter. Unlike coconut milk-based ice cream, there is no aftertaste.
“The market for vegan ice cream is growing, but there are some hurdles,” says Kumar. She studied food technology and talks about the aversion many people have to vegan ice cream. “Most of the time, they’re related to the eating experience: vegan ice cream isn’t too hard, too icy, or not as delicious as regular ice cream, or it’s full of ingredients that don’t belong in food. We wanted to solve all these problems with our ice cream.”
The cauliflower ice cream comes in Strawberry Swirl and Mint Choc Bikkie flavors.
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Image: EatKinda
It was clear to the two women that their products had to score not only with good taste but also with sustainability. “We want to make everything as environmentally friendly as possible,” says Matheson. This includes compostable packaging as well as using local ingredients. “Our initial research showed that using cauliflower uses 93 percent less land, 81 percent less water, 84 percent less greenhouse gas emissions, and 53 percent less nutrient runoff than milk production,” she says. In addition, cauliflower is grown and harvested all year round in New Zealand. And so far only 40 percent of the vegetables have been used. The rest don’t make it to the supermarket, but are sorted out because of the wrong size or small flaws. EatKinda is currently working with nonprofits and farmers to save the cauliflower and turn it into ice cream.
EatKinda is currently negotiating with other investors to finance growth over the next twelve months. Kumar hopes to soon be able to offer the cauliflower ice cream in supermarkets. Possibly outside of New Zealand.
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