Why using actual eggs in ice cream?

... perhaps for the pleasure of achieving such a good looking meringue from its albumen :-)?

30/05 Rachel, Owen and friends :-)

Today our Irish friends made us a very nice surprise: they came to visit us while Andrea was squeezing organic oranges (small and with loads of seeds, but so tasty)

Rachel Owen and friend had the chance to sample lemon sorbet just out of the ice cream machine.


Then, they also got an ice cream from Cristiana and shot these beautiful photos.

Thanks for coming Rachel and Owen, we really appreciated your surprise visit :-)

10/5 opening up!

Finally, the opening day has come!

We decided to offer ice-cream for free to pass-byers as a form to promote our freshly made product

We got good appreciation from locals and tourists


Now we can say it for sure: ice-cream making is definitely tough but rewarding job!

'fresca passione' is a reality now!


hope to see you soon :-)

7-9/5: learning and correcting mistakes :-)

We spent a few days organizing things, reviewing recipes and preparing ice-cream flavors.

Giorgia and Alice were always there to help and provide advices before we even had time to realize we needed one!

Thanks again Giorgia and Alice, we really appreciated your help!

6/5 all is set up!

Today we're very happy as Eugenio and Sergio managed to assemble the furnitures and ice cream display counter in record time

They actually drove all the way from Bergamo (Italy) to here in 27 hours on a truck, something that we bet was never achieved before (it's about 2100km distance)



On the same day we also received Giorgia and Alice Cianuri, Gianpaolo Cianuri's daughters, one of Andrea's favourite ice-cream masters.



They run jointly the best ice cream shop in Perugia, Italy (il gelato di Mastro Cianuri)





It's hard to say it in words how much grateful we are :-)

april 29th: floor polishing

Far from losing the spirit in spite of difficulties,

we spent the day with some physical work
The machine in the picture is incredibly hard to handle, but got our vending area's marble floor shiny.

28th: Our fresca passione sign :-)

we finally got our sign...

we choose a RED background to make it more visible. Nice isn't it?

April 27th: a bad surprise from the bank

Today we were supposed to sign an already approved leasing that was going to cover the ice-cream counter and bar furniture

Unfortunately, due to Bank's policy sudden change, we were told leasing was not anymore granted unless we agreed to locked-up deposit 75% of the amount as a guarantee.
So in summary, we were going to pay interest for 100% of capital while only getting 25%
Far more than we would pay for getting 25% at normal loan rates!

We had to stop the Italian supplier who was already loading the truck and delay the shipment

After considering all options,we decided not to go ahead with the leasing and simply count on our resources and different types of loans
Pity the trick implied money loss and a week delay in opening

April 25th: The first ice creams

Today we had the pleasure to receive Walter and Angela Seri, Cattabriga's suppliers for Spain


We really appreciated the BIG help we received from them:

from window cleaning

to machine cleaning

and ice cream making of course


Walter even went as far as buying the cleaning tools and powders, while Angelina was minding Elena when she was not cleaning up floors, tools, etcetera.

Many thanks To both of them

it was quite some achievement to produce the first ice cream flavor with our own machine :-)

april 23rd: receiving the ice cream machines

Today we received the ice cream machines.
They looked bigger than they appeared in the ice cream fair back in November!



Surely, they were very heavy but, thanks to the help of electricians,

truck driver and plumbers

, we got them into the production lab no problem :-)

Painting away :-)

The ice cream production lab is nearly ready, last Sunday our eleven years daughter helped with the ceiling painting




In a couple of day ice cream making machine will arrive, first on site ice cream making trials will finally take place!

our architect and carpenter visit (08.04.2009)

Paolo the architect (on the left) and Eugenio the carpenter (on the right) enjoyed a sunny day in Marbella with us.

Measures and colors are now defined and checked!

Men at work!

'Las Obras' (refurbishment works) have begun!

Production room floor has been removed, to be replaced by a waterproof one, sporting a sinkhole.

This will allow perfect cleaning and hygiene after ice cream production.




Walls are being tiled up to the ceiling, again to guarantee hygiene and easy cleaning



A couple of pipes cross the entire shop floor to allow reusing water used to cool down the machines and ice cream counter:

first pipe receives hot water from machines and counters;

Water is cooled by a water chiller

Chiller sends back cooled water to machines and counter via second water pipe.



In short: It's really thrilling to see how our project is progressing, even though there's still loads to do



Talk to you soon :-)

Gaudio Magno habemus logo

We now have a logo for frescapassione!

here it is:


Nice, isn't?

Some virtual views of the vending area

Below you can get an idea of how frescapassione's shop will look like in a few weeks
Picture below display a front view:



next picture display a 'bird eye' view:



So how does it look like? Should we chose a shade or red instead of white for the ice cream display counters?
Opinions are welcome :-)!

The shop layout

As promised, below you can see the layout of the shop we rent.

It sports a public area of about 21 square meter, a production lab is about 18 square meters and a warehouse of 14,5 square meters




It is located in very nice area:

200mt away from see promenade

in a roudabout connecting any crowded streets

In a nice restaurants and bars area

Close to Parco de la Costitución, Marbella's main public park

Few meter away from public parking

located in a corner, very visible from any angle

One step ahead

On March the 11th we finally applied for the building permission. In 15 working days we'll be able to star the refurbishment of the shop.

The next day we applied for the shop license as well, and reserved a couple of very fancy ice cream display counters



Looks like it's about time we display the new layout for the shop, thing that'll do in the next post.

Revolution!

We'll never be thankful enough to Fernando Trías de Bes and his book 'El Libro Negro del Emprendedor' for he helped us in 'seeing the light' before it was too late :-)

in short: crisis=>less money from bank=>refocus=>new shop for rent

Benefits:

• Nice location

  
  
  
  

  • not to far from the sea, the main Marbella's artery, and just in the middle of restaurant, fast food and bar area.

    
    
  
  

• Little refurbishment needed

  
  

• Greater client potentiality

  
  

• Earlier opening date

  
  

• No money invested in shop purchase

  
  

• last, but not least, shorter time to profitability

  
  

It's our belief anything can be taken advantage of, even crisis,
if looked from the right angle :-):

1. Renting: crisis can offer many location at a cheaper rent

   
   

2. sweet food consumption: in crisis period, it is proven fact
   that people increase sweet food consumption

   
   

3. dealing with suppliers: much better deals can be signed with
   suppliers eager for customers.