Jenni Matheson and Mrinali Kumar's New Zealand company EatKinda processes surplus New Zealand-grown cauliflower into vegan ice cream. Jenni Matheson experimented with pumpkins from her garden and made the discovery that cauliflower is much better suited for processing into ice cream than pumpkin. "It has a pleasant texture without a dominant flavor. That means you can easily create flavors."
In 2020, Matheson took her idea to a start-up weekend in her home region of Taranaki on New Zealand's North Island. There, she met 24-year-old Mrinali Kumar - a partner who was immediately smitten with the ice cream.
Tastes like milk-based ice cream
After two years of development and numerous tests, they launched two varieties of their cauliflower ice cream: Strawberry Swirl and Mint Choc Bikkie. The cauliflower ice cream was the first to be sold in the 77 stores of the New Zealand pizza chain Hell Pizza. Converted, 140 ml of the ice cream cost about 3.75 euros. In terms of taste, however, the ice cream is apparently quite tasty. It is described as creamy and not too sweet and is said to be close in taste to normal milk ice cream.
Sustainability through cauliflower ice cream
In addition to taste, the sustainability of the products was high on the list for the two women. The floral charcoal ice cream should be as environmentally friendly as possible. This is realized with compostable packaging as well as the use of local ingredients. EatKinda works with non-profits and farmers to save surplus cauliflower and turn it into ice cream.
