DELICIOUS CRISPY CUPS AND CONES

DELICACY: Those sitting around in the café probably thought the small espresso cup looked a little peculiar, with its slightly thick and slightly rustic appearance. But when the coffee drinker finished off the espresso by eating the cup – with obvious pleasure – there was no end to the puzzlement. They wanted such a thing too, and the success of the Danish “Eat-a-Cup” was thereby established in Italy.

The small crispy cup is baked from wafer dough and coated inside with a layer of chocolate, which makes it leaktight as well as giving it a taste of paradise, which fits perfectly to ending an espresso. And what started as a bit of a gimmick for one of Europe’s major manufacturers of ice cream cones, Frima Vafler A/S, has now become a giant success throughout the Mediterranean countries.

“It is basically a question of baking technique,” says Frima’s managing director Carsten Hoffmann. “How we do it is a secret, but it’s easy when you know how.”

In addition to its wafer bakery in Denmark, Frima has production in Sweden and Poland, and exports its cones worldwide. Customers include the countless kiosks on beaches, squares and streets, as well as the increasing number of ice cream bars that sell homemade ice creams.

Real vanilla does the trick
“Many try to imitate our quality,” says Hoffmann. “But no wafer manufacturer has yet managed to maintain the pure vanilla during baking, at the same time as maintaining the special crispiness after the ice cream has been put into the cone. It is our technology that decides the matter, because while everyone
else uses vanilla flavour, we use the real thing, combined with real butter, coco-oil and other natural ingredients. And that is simply the decisive factor. If consumers are willing
to pay a premium for homemade luxury ice cream, then the wafer must also be good. That is our competitive parameter.”

Frima produces about 80 million cones annually in various sizes depending on whether they are for soft ice or oldfashioned ice scoops. The figure varies from year to
year, according to the weather.

Sales of luxury ice cream increased
“It is a typically seasonal product and so a cold, wet summer such as the one we experienced in northern Europe in 2007, can cause sales to slump. On the other hand, sales in southern Europe have beaten all records due to the heatwaves. To be able to maintain production with such major fluctuations in a single product, we have developed a range of products
that are not so weatherdependent.

They include tortillas and tacos, most often as supermarket chain ownlabel brands.” In general, Carsten Hoffmann sees a slightly declining trend in sales of massproduced ice cream, while sales of luxury ice cream are increasing.

“The number of ice cream bars that offer home made varieties for cones of various shapes and sizes is growing apace. And this is exactly where we can deliver the goods.”

http://www.frimavafler.dk