As the huge styrofoam ice-cream cone took shape, day after day, in her
Miami backyard, Suzanne Batlle frequently asked herself how she had come to
be spending $30,000 (£19,500) on it. A single-mother supporting two teenage
children, she had resigned from a well-paid job in banking and set up an
ice-cream shop in the city's Little Havana district. With bank loans
difficult to obtain during the credit
crunch, she ploughed $280,000, mainly borrowed
from her mother and brother, into the business.
Ms Batlle spent a couple of months
studying "the chemistry and physics" of ice-cream at two specialist
institutes, and then enlisted the help of a chef friend and began to concoct her own flavours. These
ranged from the Latin American fruit mamey, to avocado, to rum cake and a
blend of guava, cream cheese and crackers, which echoes a popular Cuban habit
of eating the three together. Customers engage in lively debates to help
refine the flavours. Ms Batlle thinks the styrofoam ice cream outside her
shop could be the world's biggest.
After five months, Ms Batlle is taking
$750 a day - enough to cover
rent, bills, ingredients, loan repayments and a small wage for herself -
although it isn't enough to live on. At this rate, she says, the business's
debts will be paid off within five years.
A local restaurant has recently begun
selling her lemon and basil ice-cream, and she hopes eventually to sell
wholesale, and also to open other premises.
And now that the Styrofoam ice-cream is proudly displayed on the shop's front,
she has another goal: to get it certified
by the Guinness Book of Records as the world's largest.
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VOCABULARY
1. Styrofoam
(noun) - a soft light plastic material that prevents heat or cold from passing
through it, used especially to make containers (polystyrene)
Example: a
Styrofoam cup
2. crunch
(noun) - a difficult situation caused by a lack of something, especially money
or time
Example: Cost cutting had enabled the organization to
survive a previous cash crunch.
3. Ploughed
(verb) - to use money that you have earned from a business to make the business
bigger and more successful
Example: Companies can plough back their profits into
new equipment.
4.
Concoct
(verb) - to make something, especially food or drink, by mixing
different things, especially things that are not usually combined:
Example: Jean concocted a great meal from the
leftovers.
5. Cover (verb)
- it
is enough to pay for it
Example: The treatment wasn't covered by her
healthcare insurance.
6. Premises
(noun) - the buildings and land that a shop, restaurant, company etc uses
Example: Schools may earn extra money by renting out
their premises.
7. Certified
(adj.) - officially approved as having met a standard
Example: certified organic
vegetables
QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. Would you consider
putting up your own business?
2. Discuss about your
future business plan.
3. How would ice cream
business be like in your country?
4. Tell us about ice
cream brand in your country.
