MadameNoire
Source: Bobby Quillard / Bobby Quillard
When you think of ice cream, brands like Häagen-Dazs and Ben & Jerry’s come to mind. Executive Chef Liz Rogers is hoping to change that.
Rogers channeled her love of desserts into forming her own ice cream brand with original flavors called Creamalicious. When Rogers launched Creamalicious, she became the only Black-owned ice cream brand in mass production.
With Creamalicious, Rogers took four generations of her family’s recipes and crafted not just an ice cream, but an experience. Creamalicious’ ice cream flavors are two desserts in one. Instead of having your favorite pastry or slice of cake or pie with a scoop of ice cream separately, you can enjoy them combined into one thanks to the Creamalicious flavors. Their seven flavors include Grandma Gigi’s Sweet Potato Pie, Aunt Poonie’s Caramel Pound Cake, Right As Rain Red Velvet Cheesecake, Uncle Charles’ Brown Suga Bourbon Cake, Thick As Thieves Pecan Pie, Slap Yo Mama Banana Pudding and Porch Light Peach Cobbler.
“It’s an artisan ice cream from a culinary standpoint,” Rogers told MadameNoire. “We don’t want to have an imitation of what’s on the shelves.”
When crafting these desserts, it wasn’t only about serving sweetness with each scoop. Some of the flavors are named after her family members while they are all based on a sacred family recipe that has a significant meaning in Black history.
“The desserts have history that people don’t know about, like the red velvet cake,” Rogers said. “It was considered the celebration cake when African Americans got their freedom back. You have the white cake which is a white southern cake that was considered a peace offering. Each flavor has a story.”
When creating her flavors, she also works with food scientists to bring the dual recipes to life.
Creamalicious ice creams are available for nationwide delivery and in select Walmart’s, Meijer, Schnucks and Jungle Jim’s. Creamalicious is expected to be available in select Target stores in the fall of 2021.
As the only Black-owned ice cream brand now on the shelves, Rogers hopes to inspire other entrepreneurs to never give up on their dreams no matter how many doors aren’t opening for them. She did note that it is difficult getting investors to take a chance on minority-owned businesses, which is an underlying factor for the lack of diversity in the ice cream industry.
“It can be political sometimes,” she said. “I don’t think the capital is there. It is very very hard for us to get the proper people to invest in us and to visualize the dream. I think when you are looking for investors and you are a minority business like myself, investors are reluctant because they know the difficulty you’ll have getting into the stores. They don’t want to take a chance on us. We have to go out here and create our own opportunities. If you get told no, you keep knocking until they say yes.”
Each pint is easy on the pockets as well, only costing $5.68 to $5.99. You can order pints of your own here.
