Ice cream with whiskey for breakfast? Only from Carmen’s Best

MANILA, Philippines – Ice cream for breakfast? 

“It’s healthy. It has milk,” says Paco Magsaysay, founder and owner of Carmen’s Best, arguably the country’s best artisanal ice cream, made with fresh cow’s milk sourced from their own dairy farm in Laguna. With flavors such as Cereal Milk, infused with the taste of corn flakes, and Secret Breakfast, spiked with whiskey, it’s your secret pleasure.??

It was an oversupply of fresh cow’s milk from the dairy farm that produced Holly’s premium farm-fresh milk and other dairy products  (which was started in 2008 by his father, former Senator Jun Magsaysay) that first got Paco to think of making ice cream. His first customers were his neighbors in Alabang. It started as a small operation that soon grew beyond his initial expectations, Paco relates. 

In 2011, he launched Carmen’s Best Ice Cream, into which only the best ingredients go. “It’s 80-percent dairy,” Paco says, “and we use only the best ingredients for the balance of 20 percent.”  So vanilla, for example, would come from Madagascar, pistachios from Sicily, and chocolate from Switzerland. Naturally, they use only fresh cow’s milk. At present, they have 264 heads of cattle on their 27-hectare farm in the foothills of Mt. Makiling in Bay, Laguna. The Holstein cows are milked twice a day, every day at 4 a.m. and 4 p.m.???They have their own modern processing plant, The Laguna Creamery, which produces different dairy products such as whole milk, low-fat milk, chocolate milk and fermented products such as non-fat and low-fat yogurt, kesong puti, and gouda cheese.???

“It’s the only fresh milk-processing plant in the Philippines,” Paco says. It uses state-of-the-art technology from Israel. “The milk is kept at lower than boiling point.  That’s what makes the taste different, unlike other brands that use UHT processed milk,” Paco explains, “because when you pasteurize at ultra- high temperatures, you practically cook the milk. You lose the benefits of the good organisms and degrade the vitamins and minerals in the milk. All the good stuff is lost.”???

The fresh milk is brought to the ice cream processing plant in Alabang. They are constructing a processing plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, and are poised to export to Southeast Asia and the Middle East soon. “We already got approval from Qatar, Etihad and Emirates to serve our ice cream in their flights,” Paco says. They have been serving Carmen’s Best in the business class of PAL long- haul flights to the US, Canada, London, and Japan.?Last year, on his PAL flight from Manila to Rome, Pope Francis was served Carmen’s Best ice cream.  “He had two flavors: Malted Milk and Brown Butter Almond Brittle,” Paco relates.???       

Carmen’s Best Ice Cream comes in pint size and single serve. Of the 38 flavors they currently have, the bestseller is Salted Caramel, which accounts for 50 percent of sales. The next top five flavors include Butterscotch Pecan, Brazilian Coffee, Malted Milk, Pistachio, and Rocky Road.  Paco says that he develops flavors that appeal to his personal taste, which admittedly is western-influenced, having spent his growing-up years in the US.??“Every flavor has a story behind it,” Paco says.  Carmen’s Best?Spanish Turron flavor, for example, was inspired by his memory of the turron, or Spanish?almond ice cream, he tasted at a restaurant in Barcelona. Malted Milk, made with?Horlicks and Maltesers, brings back memories of his childhood. He got the recipe for the bestselling Salted Caramel from a book, A Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz.??? 

What could be the breakup story behind the ice cream flavor He’s Not Worth It? It’s made with rich dark chocolate, Oreo cookies, pecan, walnuts, and caramel fudge.  Hokey Pokey, made with honeycomb toffee, is a popular flavor in New Zealand, where his stepfather is from. Twix Swirl, made with real Twix chocolate cookie bars, is the favorite of his youngest and only daughter, Carmen, after whom he named Carmen’s Best. Paco says, “Ice cream is something you’d associate with happy?thoughts and good memories. It’s pure indulgence.”???