The world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shop is finally in South Africa, writes Nathan Adams
Just in time for those lazy beach holidays, Baskin Robbins has landed in South Africa. The first store opened in Cape Town on Friday; making SA the 51st country to join the Baskin Robbins family. The SA franchise is owned by Grand Parade Investments, the same company that brought Burger King and Dunkin Donuts to our shores.
With over 1300 flavours in their ice cream vault, each store will offers 31 flavours and with flavours rotated either on a weekly or monthly basis.
So what makes this ice cream different to all the others? An ice cream is an ice cream, right but they are offering customers a flavour journey from sweet to tangy and every flavour in between.
The CEO of Baskin Robbins South Africa Sean Dearham says Mzansi loves their ice cream.
"In 2014 South Africans consumed 59.5 kilograms of ice cream according to Euromonitor and that is moderately growing," says Sean.
Some of the quirkier flavours include the Hokey Pokey which is white chocolate flavoured ice cream with crunchy honeycomb candy pieces and caramel; and Cotton Candy Wonderland which is a purple, pink and yellow ice cream bursting with sweet flavour.
All you need to know about Baskin Robbins:
· The ice cream stores all have an iconic pink spoon which allows you to sample the flavours till you find your favourite.
· The first in line at the Canal Walk store arrived at the store arrived 17 hours before the doors opened, he received a free scoop of ice cream, every day for a year.
· Baskin Robbins also sells sundaes, waffle bowls, traditional and gourmet shakes including a coffee boost that comes with or without a fudge flavouring.
· Baskin Robbins South Africa will also be making customised ice cream cakes, that has a sponge and ice cream mix, they claim the cake can last 20 minutes out of the fridge before it starts to melt.
Baskin Robbins will open its next store in Tygervalley Centre, Cape Town and they aim to open a third store in the Cape before the end of 2016.
Dearham says: “By mid 2017 we hope to open our first store in Johannesburg but for now we are focused on the Western Cape. We have long term plans to open in Kwa Zulu Natal.