How EatKinda is bringing its vegan ice cream to the world – one cauliflower at a time
Jenni Matheson, co-founder of vegan ice cream brand EatKinda, shares how the idea came to life, and the company’s future plans.
The idea for a “cauliflower ice cream began with 65 pumpkins growing out of my compost,” says Jenni Matheson, co-founder of vegan ice cream brand EatKinda.
In what is said to be the world’s first cauliflower-based ice cream, New Zealand-based EatKinda’s humble journey began when Matheson challenged herself to make and create as many different meals out of pumpkin as possible because she “didn’t want to eat pumpkin soup all winter”.
“One of the recipes I created was pumpkin ice cream, which was delicious, so curiosity led me to make ice cream out of other ingredients. Over a couple of months, cauliflower ice cream emerged, which ended up being the family favourite,” Matheson tells SmartCompany.
How Matheson met her co-founder and brought EatKinda to life
Matheson, who went vegan 24 years ago, met Mrinali Kumar (Milli) at a local startup event in 2020.
It was there Matheson pitched her idea: ice cream free of dairy, soy, nuts, GMOs, and artificial ingredients.
Kumar, who had just finished her degree in food technology, loved the idea and showed an interest in joining the team.
“Over the weekend we worked well together and decided to see if we could take the idea further.
“From that day our goal has always been to create a global brand and make a positive difference to the world. Our mission is to help the world eat differently by providing options that accommodate those with allergies while also minimising the impact we have on the planet,” Matheson said.
The duo spent the next two and a half years getting into local accelerator programs “which gave us mentors and a small amount of money”.
“The programs helped us figure out our next steps and for us to look at the big picture.
“During this time, with Milli’s background in food tech, her network and contacts and with the support of Callaghan Innovations, Massey University and AGMARDT, we scaled my home recipe from 1 litre, up to 700 litres ready for the market,” Matheson shared.
How EatKinda is pioneering sustainability – from production to packaging
The brand has a deep focus on future-proofing its products, according to the founder.
Consequently, the cauliflower used for the production of the ice cream is what would generally end up in the landfill for being “cosmetically imperfect”.
According to various studies, about 45% of the fresh produce grown in New Zealand is rejected as imperfect and never leaves the farm. The figure stands at about 30% in Australia, and at the global level.
The sourced cauliflower is then mixed with various ingredients like coconut oil, chickpea flour and pea protein to develop EatKinda’s three signature flavours – Strawberry Swirl, Chocolate Swirl, and Mint Choc Bikkie.
The response, Matheson says, has been overwhelmingly positive.
“Everybody loves ice cream but not everyone is able to eat it due to their allergies… We believe everyone deserves a delicious treat without compromising on taste or texture.”
Matheson then went on to share the story of a 10-year-old boy they met at an expo, who had never eaten ice cream in his life due to his allergies.
“The overwhelming happiness expressed by this boy and his family brought me so much joy,” she shared.
“Additionally, a couple came up to me and said their friend who lives in Brazil had seen EatKinda all over her socials, she knew that her friends were in New Zealand and in Taranaki where the event was, so she messaged them from Brazil telling them to go and try EatKinda, so they did.
“I would like to add that the most common statement we hear is ‘I don’t usually like strawberries, but this is delicious,’” Matheson revealed proudly.
After developing the recipe, the EatKinda team spent a year and a half searching the globe to find the most environmentally sustainable packaging that they could.
The result? A 100% plastic-free certified home compostable ice cream tub, the first of its kind in Australasia.
How EatKinda is bringing its cauliflower ice cream to the market
“With no money and no experience we have had to work very hard and smart and learn as we go,” Matheson said.
“Many food companies start small, selling in their local market and gradually expanding into their local supermarkets building their customer base as they go.
“Our strategy has always been different: it has been to create a scalable product and get nationwide ranging for rapid growth, rinse and repeat into other markets.
“Plus our ice cream is made from cauliflower, and has no dairy; this is a new concept for people to wrap their heads around,” Matheson said.
To fund EatKinda’s growth, “Milli and I did not pay ourselves for the first couple of years” and stayed “in some pretty dodgy places along the way to save us some cash”.
“We used this approach up until we got our first customer [Woolworths New Zealand], then we needed to get some serious money to make the launch successful, and this is when we started our first round of raising investment.
EatKinda has raised $600,000 to date, with investments from Asia Pacific and the USA.
“We are currently preparing for another round of investment to support our expansion into new markets,” Matheson revealed.
“We always planned to get investors that aligned with our mission and could support us in other areas not just financial,” she added.
After working on its branding, the company onboarded its first two clients – Woolworths New Zealand and Hell Pizza.
However, the company last week revealed in a social media post that its product will no longer be available in Hell Pizza stores.
Expanding on the post, the brand said its smaller – sold-out – tubs that are available in the fast-food chain have been adding to its costs, and require more resources as each tub is hand-filled in its largely “manual” factory.
This has affected the brand’s ability to stay competitive in the market.
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The brand’s larger tubs are stocked in Farro Fresh and MetroMart, in addition to Woolworths New Zealand.
“Bringing EatKinda to the market has been a crazy ride full of hard work, constant learnings, and non-stop challenges,” Matheson said, reflecting on her journey so far.
“It’s like solving a puzzle, full of pieces that need to fit together, some of our pieces don’t exist, and sometimes we think we have found the perfect piece only to find it doesn’t fit, so we have to keep searching.”
How EatKinda is leveraging social media to drive brand awareness
“We market EatKinda through Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, sharing our story from the beginning to share our progress and build our community,” Matheson said expanding, on the brand’s social strategy.
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“Because EatKinda is dairy-free and made from cauliflower, it is a really fun product to film everyday people tasting our ice cream in the street: when they find out it’s dairy-free and made from cauliflower their reactions are very organic.
“Our street filming captures real people’s reactions, creating curiosity in others. We have people approaching us all the time, excited to try because they’ve seen us on TikTok or Instagram and they are curious.”
And on EatKinda’s plans to cross the pond and enter the Australian retail market, Matheson shared the two co-founders were in Australia in April “meeting potential partners”.
“While it is early days we are excited about the future possibilities,” she said.
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