My love affair with Ice-creams - to be more precise with Natural Ice-creams - began way back in January 2012 (seems like a long time). Before that it’s just an acquaintance, wherein I used to eat Ice-creams only at parties or events having stalls of Ice-creams among other delicious things. So after gulping all the food items, and snacks, and sweets; I used to eat Ice-creams, mostly Strawberry or Vanilla flavored (hardly mattered), to cool of the engines of my digestive system. I hardly had Ice-creams on my own expenses, but things have change since January 2012, when I had my first scoop of Natural Ice-cream.
I was in Goa with my wife enjoying the Calangute Beach, one afternoon as the weather got hot and intolerable we started back to our room and that’s when it happened. There’s Natural Ice-cream parlor on the way, and to cool-off the heat I bought two cones of Ice-creams. I was surprised, because the cost was somewhat on the higher side and quantity was little on the lesser side; ‘Only one scoop for Rs 35/- That’s too much!!’ I told my wife, who by the time had already tasted so she said, ‘You better taste it first and then talk this rubbish’. Well, that was another surprise (she talking to me like that), but adhering to her command I had the first dollop and that’s when it happened.
It was love at first lick and it was with Chickoo flavored. Since then, after coming back to Pune, we’ve tried almost all the flavors of Natural Ice-creams as it has become a routine for me to buy one box on my way back to home on weekends. It is a true love affair that I am maintaining since then. So what made this love affair endure for so long and what is making it hard for me to sustain it. Let’s cover the good part first.
What made the love affair endure?
Perfect Taste one that could make a theist out of an atheist like me (in terms of Ice-cream world). Everything is prefect (mostly true statement for the fruit based flavors), no matters which flavor you try, you will like them. Of course you will form choices, that are bound to happen based on your choice of fruits, but overall you will like them all. Sweetness is appropriate and tastes good even when melted, so in warm weather, when there are chances of it getting melted in the bowl itself, you can enjoy it, taking your time, no need to hurry.
Then there is Wide Variety of Flavor to choose from:
a.) Fruit based flavors like Chickoo, Anjeer, Tender Coconut, Sitaphal, Papaya Pineapple, Jamun, Water Melon, Peach Apricot, Musk Melon, Strawberry, Grapes, Gauva, Jack Fruit, Cherry etc. Only disappointment was Mango Flavor which I didn’t find that appealing. Many of the fruit based flavored or seasonal so you may not get them throughout the year (highlighted ones being my favorites).
b.) Dry Fruit and Nuts based Flavors like Malai, Kesar Pista, Kaju Kismis, Roasted Almonds.
c.) Chocolate and Coffee based Flavors like Choco Bites, Choco Cream, Choco Almonds and Coffee Walnuts. Chocolates and coffee flavors are not my cup of ice-creams so I don’t try them much, but from the occasional attempts I had, my judgment is that Amul and Kawality has better quality flavors in this section.
Ingredients are real and you can actually feel them while eating; whether they are mixed within the cream like Chickoo, Tender Coconut. Mango etc, or if it’s there in the cream in the form of small lumps like Sitaphal, Anjeer, Water Melon etc. , or they are in forms of small bits like Chocobite, Kaju Kismis, Kesar Pista etc Every flavor is perfectly mixed. Other good thing is the quantity of ingredients in the ice-cream. You don’t need to search it and fight it over (in case of eating with others in the same box), there’ll be plenty of ingredients and you can surely find something in every spoonful of it.
What is making it hard for me to sustain this affair?
Price, price is the only worry. For a box of 500ml it costs Rs195/(current price, in January it was Rs 175/-) and for a cup with just one scoop they charge Rs 40/- which I feel is a bit overpriced. While the other brands like Amul, Dinshaw, Kwality charges almost half the price for the same quantity of 500ml. I know there is a big difference in the taste and it requires an effort from my end to eat them(other brands) anymore, still price is little higher. Something around Rs 150/- for box and Rs 35/ -for cup but with two scoops, would’ve been the perfect prices.
Well, I guess, leaving this price thing, there are reasons enough to make this affair last for long (at least till someone brings about the same stuff at much cheaper prices). I know it’s costlier but then all good things come with their prices and when it’s the question of Quality over Quantity, one should always go with Quality and that’s what I do, following my father’s advice ‘Beta, thoda khana par achha khana!’
Once I made a mistake, by buying a box of Dinshaw’s Ice-cream, Sitafal flavored, as the Naturals shop was closed. What a horrible experience it was! My wife refused to eat it after the first spoonful itself. It was over-sweet and there was hardly taste of Sitaphal in it. It took me almost 10 days to finish that box and rather than eating, it was consuming. Since then I have always stuck to Naturals, no matter what.
But Natural Ice-creams are addictive and once you taste them you may not like other brands anymore. So taste it at your own risk if you are a believer of Quantity over Quality Theory.
Ratings :
For Fruit based Flavors its going to be 5*,
Dry Fruits and Nuts based 4.5*,
Chocolate and Coffee based flavors 3*.
Overall, considering the over-price : 4
P.S : You can connect to their homepage : https://naturalicecreams.in, for details of flavors and other things. Its very interesting but not up-to-date.
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PYAR HUMEIN PHIR MILAAEGA....