This is the kind of sweet class all Calgary school kids want to have.
In partnership with Fiasco Gelato, kids from Calgary’s Phoenix Education Foundation took part in the Fiasco Inventor Series contest in late April, where the kids had to come up with their own new flavour of gelato.
Larry Leach, a director with the Phoenix Foundation, said Fiasco approached a number of schools in the area about the program, but they were the first to accept. The non-profit independent Calgary school, that specializes in personalized student learning, is right across the street from the popular gelato stop’s 19 Street SE location, and they’ve had a strong relationship for some time.
The school’s gymnasium was transformed into a gelato experimenting facility, with all the fixings for creating a new flavour for Fiasco.
“There was one I tried, which I really liked, it was a taco flavour,” Leach said.
“(The student) took taco powder and mixed it with the vanilla gelato and then you ate it with a small nacho chip. It was really good!”
The two students whose mixtures won got to work with Fiasco’s official flavour creators on concocting their gelato gem for the mass market.
Shannon Neuman, executive assistant and Director of Wow for Fiasco Gelato, said it was the perfect community-focused idea for them.
“We like to have fun here. We like kids. We like gelato. And so it all kind of came together,” said Neuman.
In terms of what flavour creations Fiasco was looking for, they went into it with zero expectations, aside from wanting to make sure the kids had fun.
“We had no idea what to expect. We were so tickled. The kids were so creative and so funny,” Neuman said, noting the winners would have to create something they could sell. Half the proceeds from the sales went back to Phoenix.
“It was a bit of creativity, what would actually be delicious and it was important to have a dairy-free flavour.”
Charlie Forsyth was one of the winners with his Fruit Fight gelato. The five-year-old student had a plan all along.
“I came up with the name first, which is Fruit Fight. And there’s strawberries and mangos and pineapples and peaches in it,” he said.
When asked what people will like most about his new flavour, his response was straightforward.
“They’ll like everything about it.”
The other winner mixed up a pretzel and caramel combination called Pretzamel Festival, and that one was created by student Abby Shaver.
Fiasco recently created 10 litres of each flavour for sale in their location and the Pretzamel one has already completely sold out and they’re on one of the last pans of the Fruit Fight.
