Study Buddy (Challenger): How Indian ice creams offer unique and creative flavours
- Gen Z and millennials are driving gourmet and artisanal trends
- This page is for students who want to take their reading comprehension to the next level with difficult vocabulary and questions to test their inference skills
Inspired by everything from local cakes and desserts to red chilli and street food, Indian ice cream brands are breaking the mould when it comes to flavours. Photo: Assad DadanContent provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1-9 below:
[1] Ice cream is the perfect treat for scorching Indian summers but these days, they do not come in just any old flavours. From chilli basil and betel leaf to sesame candy and even masala chai, these so-called artisanal ice creams are taking the traditional frozen dessert to another level.
[2] Burma Burma, a Burmese restaurant and tea room chain in India, offers varieties made in-house including dark chocolate and olive oil, avocado and honey, caramelised chocolate and cheese, honeycomb and sweetcorn, and durian. “The recently introduced ice cream flavours are a reflection of the preferences of millennials and Gen Z,” says Ankit Gupta, co-founder of Burma Burma.
[3] “We have played upon the nostalgia of ice cream rituals such as visiting parlours, birthday parties, and bowls shared with family and guests, which to an extent helped us create different flavours. Our packaging is equally nostalgic, and encapsulates the feeling of vintage parlours and ice cream trucks.”
[4] Greater health consciousness has led a shift to ice creams without emulsifiers or artificial flavours, while younger consumers show keen interest in gourmet ice creams that are inspired by Indian cakes, cookies and confectionery.
[5] The 2023 Godrej Food Trends Report noted that 75 per cent of the more than 200 chefs and food experts that contributed to the report predicted that interest in artisanal and gourmet ice cream would continue to grow.
[6] One of the biggest trendsetters in the Indian ice cream market is Naturals Ice Creams, started by Raghunandan Srinivas Kamath in 1984 when he acquired a small ice cream shop in Mumbai. Since then, Naturals Ice Creams has grown into one of the nation’s top ice cream brands, offering more than 125 flavours. It specialises in ice cream made from only milk, sugar and fruit, with no preservatives, stabilisers, artificial colours or chemicals.
[7] Its seasonal fruit flavours include chikoo, jackfruit custard apple, musk melon, lychee, black grape, fig and watermelon. It has also developed some more unusual flavours, including prasadam (a special meal for worshippers), gajar halwa (a carrot-based dessert) and tilgul (an Indian sweet).
[8] India’s love affair with ice cream goes back to the 16th century, when a frozen dessert called kulfi was developed in Delhi during the Mughal reign. The name derived from the Persian for “covered cup”, which refers to the conical metal mould in which it was made. To make kulfi, milk flavoured with ingredients such as cardamom, saffron, pistachio and rose petals is mixed with sugar and slowly cooked in a wok, which reduces the milk and condenses it. It is then frozen in conical moulds. Even today kulfi in various flavours is still popular in India, often sold in earthen pots.
[9] It was the British who introduced the Western concept of ice cream to India. After Indian independence in 1947, local brands such as Amul and Vadilal became household names. With economic liberalisation in the 1990s, foreign brands like Häagen-Dazs and Baskin-Robbins entered the country. Thanks in part to hotter summers, the ice cream market is booming in the country and was worth 228.6 billion rupees (US$2.7 billion) in 2023, according to market research firm Imarc. The firm expects the market to reach 956 billion rupees by 2032.
Source: South China Morning Post, May 18
Questions
1. What is unique about the ice cream flavours mentioned in paragraph 1?
2. According to paragraph 2, who might the ice cream flavours sold in Burma Burma be targeted towards?
3. In paragraph 3, Burma Burma’s co-founder hopes customers will have a feeling _______ when they eat their ice cream.
A. of going back to the simple pleasures of the carefree days of summer
B. of the sugar rush that comes with indulging in a sweet treat
C. associated with childhood ice cream experiences
D. all of the above
4. What sets “healthier” ice cream apart from the traditional ones according to paragraph 4?
5. What was the focus of the 2023 Godrej Food Trends Report mentioned in paragraph 5?
A. consumer food preferences
B. new culinary techniques
C. sustainable food options
D. restaurant turnover rates
6. Find a word in paragraph 6 that refers to Naturals Ice Creams being “a pioneer in a new approach to making ice cream”.
7. Which of the following is Naturals Ice Creams’ bestselling flavour?
A. gajar halwa
B. musk melon
C. tilgul
D. information not given
8. Based on your understanding of paragraph 8, what shape does a traditional kulfi look like?
9. What is the future projection for the ice cream industry in India according to paragraph 9?
Answers
1. They are artisanal ice creams that offer different flavours from traditional ones.
2. millennials and Gen Z
3. C
4. They do not contain emulsifiers or artificial flavours.
5. A
6. trendsetter
7. D
8. cone
9. It is quite positive, with significant growth projected as the market value is expected to reach an estimated 956 billion rupees by 2032 from the current 228.6 billion rupees. (accept all similar answers)