Tapi Tapi ice cream shop owner, Zimbabwean Tapiwa Guzha, mixes dry ice into the ice cream ingredients at his shop in Observatory. Picture: Esa Alexander/Reuters
Cape Town - When Tapiwa Guzha first started making ice cream 12 years ago, he never imagined he would one day be whisking pumpkin puree and milk together to make an African-flavoured ice cream at Tapi Tapi, his own cafe, in Cape Town.
Hailing from Zimbabwe, 36-year-old Guzha says he wants to educate locals and visitors alike on African-flavoured experiences and correct a narrative that things made in Africa are second rate or are not as tasty.
"At some point it became an aspirational thing to say I don't eat African food so I started addressing that problem," he said at his Tapi Tapi shop.
Located in the bohemian suburb of Observatory, he shares the different flavours in tubs and cones, and celebrate African food culture, rituals and folklore.
Flavours include combinations of indigenously sourced food like pumpkin, popped maize, peanuts, sweet potato, clay, samp - a mushy dish made of dried corn kernels.
One such flavour is made from rooibos, a popular tea plant in South Africa, and sweet potato jam.
"It's quite common in Zimbabwe to eat tea with sweet potatoes instead of bread," Guzha says.
People often bring him ingredients from other parts of the continent and they get a free tub of ice cream in return.
Some customers said they found the flavours surprising and heart-warming and were struck by the familiarity of it.
Growing up, customer Clive Sibanda knew ice cream could be vanilla, something that is not native to South Africa.
"Now, if you eat something like samp, something you grew up eating it connects you with your childhood," he said.
Reuters