A TASTE OF AFRICA

Meet the entrepreneur creating exotic ice-cream flavours from unique local ingredients

- KESHIA AFRICA

HE'S tired of seeing people eat chocolate ice-cream. And boring old strawberry - don't even get him started H on that one.

What Tapiwa Guzha serves up at Tapi Tapi ice-cream parlour in Cape Town is a lot less vanilla in every sense of the word. Flavours range from mopani worm, seaweed, fynbos, and baobab to dried fish mixed with toffee and he's on a mission to inspire his customers to be a little more adventurous with their icecream choices.

A sign on the wall of his shop puts it all into perspective. It reads, "Our flavours are not weird!"

"We've all been socialised into believing Eurocentric food should be the global norm," he says.

He's made more than 1 000 different types of exotic African ice-cream since he opened his business in 2018, and his favourites are those he refers to as his "disruptive flavours".

"I love the flavours that make people feel uncomfortable instinctively. The ones that when I read it on the menu, it doesn't sound good, but when they taste it, it tastes good," Tapiwa (36), who hails from Zimbabwe and has a PhD in molecular biology, tells us.

"It disrupts how people perceive flavours and it's only disruptive because the base ingredient is savoury."

On the day of our visit there are seven flavours on offer, including an intriguing hibiscus and blackjack combo, and one that contains amasi.

But after listening to all that Tapiwa has to say, I feel obliged to opt for the most adventurous flavour on the list: the toasted masonja cake.

It's sweet and has the texture of a typical dessert - if I hadn't known that this was the one made from crushed mopani worms, I'd never have guessed.

It's delicious and I'd happily order it again, but the ice-cream that I really think is out of this world is the rooibos and turmeric - it's a spicy bit of heaven.