When it comes to artisanal ice cream, there are a few names that surely do take the scoop; yet none are as exotic as what Isle of Gelato offers. I was fortunate enough to land an interview with Suranjan Perera and Shalini Fernando at Caramel Pumpkin in Ward Place. This young entrepreneurial couple has been inspired by something that has made Italy famous – Gelato. With the whole influx of entrepreneurial thinking making inroads into people’s consciousness, it is refreshing to see two ambitious individuals who have a background in finance putting the method into the madness when it comes to creating a new brand.
But one of the biggest problems that entrepreneurs need to learn is that focusing just on the money is going to be a very short-term success story. It truly was refreshing to hear these guys speak so passionately about Isle of Gelato. With quality on their minds, and wearing their hearts on their sleeves, this was surely going to be a success story when you realize that what they have literally churned out is oozing with superlative quality. I guess a testament to this level of quality is when Peter Kuruvita himself collaborated with these enthusiastic founders to vouch for their hard-focused efforts.
One of the most redeeming factors when it comes to Isle of Gelato is the manic obsession with using fresh ingredients. One of the more adventurous flavours would be jackfruit or waraka; there is also turmeric and coconut milk making up a sorbet flavor option that is aptly called — golden milk sorbetto. This reminds me: gelato and sorbets are also on the menu, and, I assure you, none of them taste like what you think they taste like – they taste better. While Colombo’s discerning denizens have been hogging their way through cups of finely churned gelato, a huge following in Galle has also been enthralled with Isle of Gelato as well.
Marketing is only half the game when it comes to promoting the product; the real fact of the matter is that when it comes to business your product has to be star class. With so many players in the market, Isle of Gelato is being pitched at a premium standard as it rightly should; the effort expended when it comes to the level of sourcing good quality items plus the investment of over LKR 70 million in state-of-the-art machinery and freezers shows that this is some serious gelato. There is no artificial flavoring. Period.
The names of the various flavours themselves evoke a sense of desirability that even I, as a foodie, have not come across in all my travels across 14 nations. Every flavor is a must try, and it goes without saying that names like – Puttalam Sea Salt and Caramel, Island Coconut, Buffalo Lemon Curd, and Fior Di Latte – does provide you with a sense of longing that’s rather unbearable. Isle of Gelato has got an almost-Harry-Potterish-kinda thing going on with Shalini Fernando concocting a vast variety of flavours that are, on rare occasions, beautifully indulgent mistakes.
All things considered, Isle of Gelato has brought the best of Italy to Sri Lanka; and, frankly, in essence, dare I say it – these folks really do churn out some exceptional gelato straight from their quirky lab in Rajagiriya. This refreshing brand does also bring a few other things to the table: one, is that Sri Lankans truly do have the ability to produce something that is world-beating when it comes to quality, and we do have the natural resources to do so; two, the entrepreneurial spirit needs to be fostered and nurtured since initiatives like this where people do get to follow their dreams is something that the country does need, and in turn, so does the world.
This, I would think, is the most refreshing thing of all in the Isle of Gelato story.
Written by Rohitha Perera