This city venture provides ice cream with a flavour twist
Inspired by the ice cream trucks from cartoons he used to watch as a child, Barath Jaiyanth along with his two friends Jesvin Prabhu and Shanmuga Pandian started an ice cream truck business called The Tickle Truck. “The concept of an ice cream truck was something that started from my childhood — it was a childhood dream for me. I used to see these ice cream trucks in cartoons a lot and was intrigued by the concept of ice cream trucks and used to search for the same in Chennai when I was a kid. But I could not find it anywhere in the city. From that point, I started thinking that in case we need to start a business, we should start an ice cream truck, as there is no ice cream truck in Chennai and this would be one of a kind. When the right time came, I thought of starting my business and the first thing that came to my mind was an ice cream truck. I called my two friends and discussed this idea and that’s how the ice cream truck came into life,” says Barath.
Though Tickle Truck sells thick shakes, ice cream sandwiches and ice cream soda, it is their popsicles, and ice creams that stand out from the rest due to their flavours that aren’t available anywhere else. Some of the popsicle flavours include Mad Virgin Mojito, Rosemilk, Sugarcane and Mystery More (spicy savoury buttermilk) Popsicle to name a few.
Explaining the different flavours and the uniqueness of the ice cream truck, Barath informs, “These popsicles are drinks that people love a lot; I decided to convert it into a popsicle. There are other fruit-based popsicles like Juicy Grapes or Punchy Orange that are naturally handcrafted and homemade. Even in ice creams, there are different flavours. I came up with the idea of changing South Indian sweets to ice creams. Carrot halwa ice cream, paal khoa ice cream are the fast-selling ones and have got a very good response from people. Apart from that, we also have flavours like Chilli Choco, Litchi Saffron that have Indian spices in them. I wanted to make an Indianised version of ice creams.
Our Indian flavour profiles have spices in every dish, so I thought why ice cream can’t also have different kinds of spices in them.”
Barath quit his job in an ad agency to venture into this field which was new to him. “Wanting the business to be unique, I did some basic R&D — by collecting lots of materials, saving articles/videos regarding the flavours that should be incorporated. I discussed with my team that I worked in the ad agency, they helped me in creating some designs for the exterior of the truck and came up with the design we have right now which is based on the concept of ice cream land. After that, I met chef Koushik Shankar, he’s the one who guided us and showed us what kind of flavours to choose, the flavour profile that would work out in India. With that help I collected details and started working on my flavours,” adds Barath.
While the original plan of having a moving ice cream truck was not possible as getting permission for parking the truck was difficult, it didn’t stop Barath and his partners from expanding the business. “We currently park the ice cream truck at Besant Nagar Beach and are open from 5-10 pm. We are planning to open a franchise kiosk outlet in Alwarpet. Once we buy bigger machinery we would expand to at least seven-eight outlets in Chennai, after which we would move to other cities as well,” concludes Barath.