Merely Ice Cream Scoops Up Innocent Bystanders
By Nishant Store, Photos by Clara Lock
Do not be surprised if a brief stroll down Sunshine Plaza entices you into a charming little ice-cream shop by the curb.
Also, don’t panic if you find yourself unable to resist another scoop – guilt is but a manifestation of summer-heat. No harm will come to you within the confines of Merely Ice Cream, the newest ice-cream kid on the block!
According to co-founder Ying Wai, the directors of Merely Ice Cream originally intended to be franchisees for an international ice cream chain, but were put off by the high franchising costs. So they switched gears, spending almost a year researching how to make their own ice cream. The brainchild of these efforts is Merely Ice Cream, a misnomer of course.
Because this isn’t merely ice cream – it’s the freshest frozen dollop you’ll find in town. Devoid of preservatives and stabilizers, which are traditionally used to keep ice cream fresh and frozen longer, Merely’s uses authentic ingredients in every single scoop.
Their strawberry ice cream is bursting with the zest of real strawberries, and to make vanilla ice cream, Ying Wai buys real vanilla pods, deseeds them and soaks them overnight in order to bring out a natural vanilla flavour.
Oreo milk, the parlor’s best-selling flavor, tastes just like Oreos dunked in milk.
The bits of chocolaty biscuit are toothsome and chunky, while the smoothness of the ice cream comes from blending Oreo cheesecake into a mix of Oreos that have been subjected to a fair deal of milk dunking.
Despite the multi-step production process, Merely Ice Cream maintains reasonable, student-friendly prices – you can knock back a triple scoop for $7.90 and still get change from a ten-dollar bill.
The ice-cream parlor’s favorable setting does come with its perks. Located a stone’s throw away from SMU, NAFA and Lasalle, the parlor draw crowds of students who use it as a hangout away from home and school.
And in line with the shop’s theme of homemade goodness, even the tables have been handcrafted by the owners. As Ying Wai put it, “You can do anything with ice-cream. All you need is imagination.”
Merely Ice Cream is located at #01-13 Sunshine Plaza, 91 Bencoolen Street. For more information, visit www.merely.com.sg.
