Tiramisu Magic, Dark Chocolate, Tropical Passion or Coco Cloud, Kahaw (a play of words on ‘hau kalima’, ice cream in Hawaiian), is the plant-based gelato that promises to be good to our gut. We had a candid talk with Georges, unraveling the secrets of ice cream making and the entrepreneurial journey.
Georges’ passion for ice cream stems from childhood, he recalls those moments of happiness when as a kid he’d get his Twister or his Cornetto from the ice cream stand on a sunny day. The passion followed him into adulthood but ‘it was not reciprocated,' he laughs. As an adult Georges recalls trying many sorts of ice creams, but regularly felt bloated after eating the dairy. During a chat with a couple of friends, about five years ago, the idea popped and Georges became even more interested in the subject. They looked up how to produce vegan ice cream, and saw an opportunity after getting interest from restaurants in Beirut. Events took a turn in Lebanon when the revolution started, with political instability and the covid crisis. ‘The price of maple syrup reached 50$ for 250ML’ the entrepreneur recalls, it was a lot of money for a base ingredient, ‘the economics didn’t make sense’ especially with the lira volatility. Georges moved to France and worked for Choco, a B2B food tech startup with an inventory of vendors to facilitate restaurant orders. After two years he felt like he had the full rounded experience and wanted to come back home to contribute to his country’s economy. He started telling his friends about his plant-based ice cream idea and realized there was a strong demand for products without lactose. So he set out to recreate those happy moments from childhood for those who ‘want the treat, but still want to feel good afterwards.’ With his friends on board from the beginning, he surrounded himself with ‘the right team,’ Labaki studio for the fun branding and Gummy Studios for the mouthwatering photoshoot.
The entrepreneur spent months perfecting his recipes, traveling to Tuscany to learn the craft where he was impressed by the know-how, and fascinated to uncover the science behind ice cream making. After starting his learning journey on his own, via trial and error, unraveling the behind the scenes of fruits and natural elements came as a revelation for him, and brought him the ease to feel free to play around and be creative. From vanilla beans that can be darker from one harvest to the next, making the taste stronger, to dates drier in a certain season, or the natural bitterness of cacao that needs a sweetener, for which he tried date syrup or carob molasse, it’s a constant game of balancing. From recipes, ice cream production and scooping to sales and deliveries, Georges is on every front and tells us the entrepreneurial journey constantly pushes our ability to stay focused, in a country that tests our patience ‘you are sometimes forced to solve something you already solved.’ Delays from the stickers supplier, his oatmilk of choice no longer on the market, with every challenge he stays the course asking himself ‘how do we get this done now.’ With one Tik Tok video posted by a friend this summer, his stand in Faraya attracted a savvy young clientele happy to find dairy free ice cream with no refined sugars. For the creamy flavors, peanut butter, pistachio or cocoa hazelnut, the eggs and dairy are replaced by almonds, walnuts and the likes, and the sorbets, mango, strawberry or mulberry are all fruit and water. Ingredients are of utmost important and the entrepreneur prefers to stop a flavour when the fruit is not in season, like his avocado-lime made with local avocadoes. With Kahaw Gelato, Georges set out to create feel-good moments, an homage to his late mother who passed on her passion for cooking and taught him the importance of those little ripples in life that can create happiness.
Photo credits: Gummy Studios and Flo Husseini
