Girls enjoy ice-cream bars on a sultry day in the city. Picture by Eastern Projections

June 18: You had tea in various flavours ? lemon, cardamom, ginger and strawberry. Now, it’s time for tea to flavour your ice-cream.

A local ice-cream company is all set to take on the international brands this summer with its tea flavoured ice-cream.

West Assam Milk Producers Co-operative Union Limited, the makers of Purabi brand of dairy products, will launch Assam’s very own ice-cream brand, to be available at a store near you very soon.

Besides the tea-flavoured ice-cream, the company will also introduce innovative flavours like banana and litchi, keeping in mind local tastes. To be launched in Guwahati initially, the ice-cream will be available all over Assam within a short time. “Our recent survey clearly indicates a growing market of ice-cream products in the state,” said Jiyauddin Choudhury, managing director of the co-operative union.

He said at present, brands like Kwality Walls and Big Ones have a big share of the ice-cream market in the state.

“We’re sure to capture the market with our local and popular flavours. Moreover, a dynamic market strategy will be adopted to win over the market,” added Choudhury.

The brain behind the launch of ice-cream, diary technologist, Deepak Saikia, who had earlier worked for the introduction of cream, lassi, flavoured milk and paneer by Purabi Brand, has taken an innovative approach as far as his ice-creams are concerned.

“Flavour is the area where we want to experiment. Apart from traditional flavours like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, kesar pista and others, we are planning to add Assam’s own tea and easily available fruits like banana and litchi flavours to the ice-creams,” said Saikia. “We need financial assistance to make the project a successful one. We are planning to approach the ministry of food processing to share our financial burden,” said Choudhury.

The best part about the ice-cream will be the price. ” Our prices will be slightly lower than the available brands. We have decided to do so as we will be spared in the transportation front. Most of the ice-creams comes via air in cold storage boxes from Calcutta to the city,” said Saikia.

Retail outlets of the ice-cream will be opened near schools, colleges, shopping centres of the city to have greater public accessibility.

The co-operative union was formed in 1977. After getting a good initial response, the co-operative union started its campaign, Operation Flood, in 1981 to make milk available in every household in five districts of Assam ? Kamrup, Nalbari, Morigaon, Nagaon and Goalpara.