Carmen’s Best Ice Cream
FOR CARMEN’S Best Ice Cream, only dairy farm fresh milk and select quality ingredients get into this pure indulgence product.
The father of Francisco “Paco” Magsaysay—former Senator Ramon Magsaysay Jr.—saw the need to produce dairy since we import almost 98 percent of our dairy products from New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands and USA.
Finding a viable 27-hectare for grazing cattle in Bay, Laguna, he and his partner friends imported 100 cows from New Zealand. There are now 270 heads of Holstein Friesian milk-producing cattle.
So Paco was tasked to market and sell fresh milk and milk products from his father’s dairy farm. He had to think of creative ways to preserve the essence of freshness, which started Carmen’s Best Dairy Products.
Paco and his daughter, Carmen.
What started as a hobby is now establishing a market niche for ice cream lovers willing to pay a premium for “the best.”
Named after his youngest daughter Carmen, Paco, an entrepreneur who grew up in Texas and runs the family cable TV business, decided to devote his full time on the milk and ice cream business he truly loves.
In 2013, he took the ice cream course in the Pennsylvania State Ice Cream School where he won the program’s coveted Phil Keeney award.
Paco believes that good ice cream starts with the quality of milk–fresh from the dairy farm where the milk is pasteurized at the right temperature of 76.5°C. Most milk available in the market is UHT, which means ultra high temperature where milk is sterilized by heating it above 153°C for longer shelf life.
What can be better than an ice cream company with its own dairy farm backed by a pasteurizing plant? The freshness and good taste of the milk is retained, not to mention the nutritive value.
Carmen’s Best Ice Cream, Paco explains, is made from only pure fresh milk so it is dense, rich, and creamy, made the artisanal or old-fashioned way.
Paco Magsaysay (left) in their dairy farm
It does not melt fast since it has real dairy fat. And he adds that he gets the inspiration for the flavors and variety from his trips abroad. All the fine
ingredients are natural–like Madagascar vanilla from beans, the much-loved Malted Milk is made with Horlicks malted milk powder from England and pure Swiss chocolate.
I was nostalgic when I immediately tasted and recognized the Horlicks in the Malted Milk ice cream. Horlicks are the malties tablets that we popped in our mouths when I was a kid.
Paco Delgado Magsaysay
Paco guided us, as we tasted the different flavors he has created. “He’s Not Worth It” is an interesting flavor created for broken-hearted girls who binge on the rich dark chocolate ice cream base infused with Oreo cookies, pecans, walnut and swirls of caramel fudge.
The most defining moment of this pure indulgence was when His Holiness, Pope Francis indulged in two flavors of Carmen’s Best Ice Cream, Malted Milk and Brown Butter Almond Brittle, which was served during his Philippine Airlines flight in his visit to the Philippines.
Carmen’s Best Ice Cream is served in the business class of PAL international flights. In Cebu, we can enjoy this creamy delight available in all Bo’s Coffee outlets and soon at the Robinson’s Galleria Supermarket.