Help us grow our brand, Tudy's Kitchen

From its humble beginnings in my kitchen, to now selling at the largest retailer in The Netherlands, I've scaled my unique handmade ice cream business from my own savings, support from family and close friends, and a successful crowdfunding campaign of €20K that I ran in late 2021. As the only Black owned (and of of few woman owned) ice cream brands here, I am in search of your support once again to take my business to the next level.

My inspiration

Food tastes best when it comes from the heart, and my Grandma Tudy inspired the importance of cooking with instinct. Trusting your palette to flow without recipes is where the story begins on why we experiment with the unconventional. Tapping into this is also an important element to how we connect with our customers.

My story

For the last two decades, my commercial background centered around advertising and branding, spending recent years working in Tech in a senior leadership role. Product development and growth marketing strategies are my specialties in this area. A culmination of working in toxic environments for several years eventually lead to a burnout - and fate would have it that the pandemic hit just shortly after. It was in the midst of this that I lost two family members in the same year.

Having endured so much lost, finding joy and light again is what lead to creating this brand. Channeling my energy towards cooking and experimenting with new concepts was what my soul was looking for.

In all of this, I reconnected with my roots of cooking with instinct, the fundamentals of what I learned from spending time in the kitchen with Grandma Tudy back in the day. Afro-Caribbean staples were passed down to me at an early age, and coming up with new ways to reinvent these concepts in unexpected ways is how my first signature ice cream flavor, Chicken + Waffles, came to be. This proved to be the catalyst to developing a series of unique, one-of-a-kind flavors.

The market is hungry for “intense delight and maximizing pleasure.” Shopping experiences have become hedonistic in nature, and “exploring new products combined with an element of the unexpected” is what’s driving consumer behavior.

My product is here to satisfy this craving …

About the product

If you’re looking for basic, you’ve come to the wrong place. We’re all about surprising and delighting our customers with ice cream flavors they’ll least expect. Roasted balsamic blueberry with honey goat cheese. Sage brown butter cookie dough. Chocolate covered bacon. CBD!

About the brand

We use storytelling in building connections with our customers, inviting them on a journey to discover the origins of our product, values, mission and goals.

Mission: We’re on a mission to spread delight, reminding all to take pleasure in the simple things in life - putting self care at the center of this. We’re obsessed with dreaming up ways to reinvent the familiar.

Vision: Building a brand that creates generational wealth, allowing us to give back to our community is our vision for the company. We’ll do this by using quality ingredients that are sustainable and good for the planet.

Values:

Using quality ingredients + locally sourced products
Creating business opportunities for underrepresented groups
Collaborating with partners who believe in these values to help us build our brand

Reviews and customer testimonials:

We are overjoyed by the number of positive reviews, media mentions and growing excitement our products and unique menu offerings have received ...

The Willy Wonka of ice cream!! As creative and unique as these flavors are, it's truly an elevated version of what we all love about ice cream. A flavor explosion. Michelin star worthy! Grandma Tudy would be so proud THE BEST ice cream I've ever had!! Try the balsamic blueberry or the brown butter sage cookie dough.

Hands down the best ice cream I tasted this summer, and I tasted a lot! The hot honey and chicken and waffles are out of this world flavor bombs! The staff were super nice too. definitely be back next time I'm in Amsterdam

The vibe is amazing and the flavors of the ice cream are very tasty. The coconut latte is one of my favorites. sat and ate a whole container and to my surprise it was light and filling and I wasn't stuffed.

Where are we now?

The Universe has been in my corner at every step of this jouney - oppportunies I couldn't have dreamed of flowing my way! One of which included a national TV appearance on a show aimed at pitching business ideas to investors looking to support budidng entrepreneurs. My pitch was a hit - I got a YES.

Though after careful consideration, I declined the offer. The idea of giving up nearly half of my business at such an early stage of our growth didn't feel right. The risk of diluting my brand's roots, mission and purpose were on the line. My vision of using my brand, and my platform, to support entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups, was at stake.

Loyal customers, followers, friends, family, former colleagues and other business professionals have been the unsung heroes who've guided me to where I'm at today. To maintain the integrity of what I work so tirelessly to build, I turn to you, my community, once more.

Let's make Tudy's Kitchen THE #1 ice cream brand in the NL. Next, the world!

Watch out Ben & Jerry's ...