“The odd coloured egg was shaking uncontrollably. Suddenly it cracked open and out came a cute baby penguin- Mumble! His parents fed him chocolates, oranges & strawberries mixed in milk. He tried all kinds of milk based items and at last stumbled upon ICE-CREAM. Ice Cream had found a permanent spot in his heart ever since.” - Mumble's Lab
I have only seen the usage of liquid nitrogen on screen when it comes to food. For that, I must thank the Master Chef series on television. When I first got an invitation to visit this place where they make ice cream with liquid nitrogen I was pretty excited. They assured that I am going to love every bite of the ice cream that has no cream, no egg. Ahem, No Egg, No Cream!! I puckered my brows for a while with a thought how it would taste? Should I visit? But the food blogger inside me doesn’t want to miss the opportunity to experience a different world of ice cream making. So here I am.
Mumble’s Lab is the 1st Ice cream Parlour in Kolkata that is offering liquid nitrogen ice cream. The ambiance is that of a lab with various equipment and Pipes. There are flavours in the form of equations on the walls Inspired by the periodic table. Most of all there is a strong branding of their penguin mascot – Mumble and his story about the origin of Liquid Nitrogen ice cream (LN2). I met the owner Devina Parakh after reaching there and had a quite interesting chat over few flavours of Ice cream. Devina said: “Five years ago, we had our first go at a nitrogen ice cream parlour in London. Ever since we’ve been working on bringing this innovative culinary from back home”. A glimpse of our conversation:
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| Devina Parakh - the owner |
We wanted to give our brand a mascot. We had three options - polar bear, reindeer and penguin, the three animals you generally associate with snow. We figured, a penguin would be cute and we could add colour to the penguin. We named it mumble - after the character mumble from Happy Feet so that it would be easier for people to associate with our mascot.
What are the Signature flavours that Mumble’s Lab is proud of?
Ginger honey basil, Orange caramel, Holi special – Thandai, Bournvita et al
Which flavour customers are enjoying?
Apart from our signature flavours the customers are in love with the Nutella with red Velvet / Hazelnut topping. In last two months ,we have sold over thousand scoops of Nutella. Customers are in love with the texture and freshness of the ice cream. We are providing a platform to try their own flavours (our caption - your ice your way) which have been highly appreciated.
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| Holi special – Thandai. I tried this one and loved it. |
What is your Future planning?
We are planning to open new outlets in different parts of the city. We are also moving into catering events and parties. We are also trying to incorporate liquid nitrogen in desserts. We are currently also trying to incorporate milkshakes in our menu.
Do you run offers/discounts for the Customers?
We keep running offers every now and then. As of now, if a customer checks in on Facebook or likes our page on Instagram we are giving them a free topping.
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| The signature orange caramel won my heart |
Anything you would like to share the people of Kolkata?
Many customers come to Mumble's thinking we are using dry ice and not liquid nitrogen. Most people are not aware of what LN2 is. Liquid nitrogen maintains a temperature of -196 degrees Celsius which is way lower than the coldest place on earth. It is only used to freeze the mixture instantly. The ice cream in itself does not have any liquid nitrogen since it all evaporates. LN2 is tasteless, odourless and colourless. It does not enhance or change the taste of the ice cream in any way. It is not harmful to consume liquid nitrogen ice creams. The liquid nitrogen which we are using is food graded. Also, many customers come to us asking us for fresh fruits in the ice cream. We would like to elaborate on this. Since every scoop is made to order and we cannot guarantee the taste of fresh fruits, hence we are not using fresh fruits in the ice cream. If we did, it would lead to a lot of inconsistency. The USP of our ice creams is:
- Fresh since every scoop is made to Order
- No cream - we do not use any cream in our ice creams
- No preservatives - we do not use any preservatives, hence, the ice creams do not have a very long shelf life.
- 100% vegetarian - most people assume that ice cream has egg. Our ice creams do not have any egg.
- We do not add sugar in most of our ice creams
- Customers can customise the ice cream the way they like. For instance - In ginger honey basil - if you want it less sweet, and more ginger. While placing the order the customer can request for the same and the ice cream can be customised accordingly.
In the coming months, we will promote our tagline "your ice your way" where customers can get their ingredients and we can make the ice cream for them. We cannot guarantee the taste, but it would be the first of its kind giving the customers an avenue to try what they like. Also, we are planning to host a recipe competition in the coming month. Wherein, customers can bring their ingredients and try their desired flavours. If they are convinced with the taste, they can leave us the recipe. At the end of the competition, we will work on the flavours according to the recipe provided by the participants with our chef. The winners of the competition will have their recipes on our menu along with their names. And we would be awarding them with a prize.
Instead of the traditional ice cream parlours which serve a variety of flavours, we decided to start with 9 flavours. We are and would be incorporating new flavours every now and then, giving the customers a reason to come back again and again to try the new exciting flavours or to even stick to their personal favourites.
Is there any option to take away?
We have not started it yet. We are working on it. So we guess pretty soon we can offer the takeaway option to the customers.
My verdict:
If I am not satisfied enough then I never recommend to my readers to visit so and so eateries. I highly recommend Mumble's Lab. Mainly where you are getting an opportunity to enjoy almost calorie-free ice cream, a guilt-free indulgence. The prices of the ice creams are also very reasonable varies from 120 (INR) to 280 (INR). So go and visit and then please give me your feedback if you liked it or not.
(Disclaimer: I was invited by Thinkquisitive as a guest)
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