The Ice Cream Not For Dragons

The latest series of Dragon's Den has just finished and I think it was in the next to last episode when 2 very charming young men, Harry and Charlie, came on and presented their guilt free luxury ice-cream.  You would think the combination of luxury and guilt free when talking about ice-cream was not possible, but it is and this is a luxury dairy ice cream with less sugar and calories than an apple and it is the creation of Oppo 

It's fascinating to read their story and how it all started with a windsurfing trip to Brazil which turned out to be a lot more than a simple windsurfing holiday.

But back to the Dragons - at first they were really impressed.  And then one of the Dragons mentioned a slight aftertaste with one of the flavours and this influenced the thoughts of the others.  All in all, the Dragons pulled out because one had a conflict of interests (fair enough), 2 were not quite convinced with the slight aftertaste issue and the 2 remaining dragons pulled out because they thought the market was too small for them. 

I think this is one of those cases when the Dragons are going to look back and think they made the wrong choice.  Personally, I didn't actively seek out the product as I didn't think it was that widely available, but when I recently saw the Madagascan Vanilla and Baobab flavour staring back at me in the freezer department of the local Co-op (and bonus, it was also on special offer), I just had to give it a go.  My verdict is that it is absolutely lovely.

I have no sponsorship from Oppo so this is my own unbiased opinion.  At the time of the tv programme I was sorry that such a good product was rejected by the Dragons.  But its ok, as it turns out that Oppo didn't need Dragons investment after all because they've grown their market through crowdfunding and they are going from strength to strength.  Going on Dragon's Den was a way of raising awareness and it worked for me - Oppo ice-cream?  I'm in!