As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, Vedrine, a small family cheese factory located in the middle of the green heart of Lika, presented a novelty – Medenko loves Vedrine ice cream. This is the result of their cooperation with the Samobor-based company Medenko, which produces homemade ice cream and a cheese factory that produces traditional Lika dairy products.
As Milana Mileusnic from the Vedrine cheese factory explains, the collaboration began back in January, and the process lasted until the recipes were adjusted because the ice cream wasn’t made from dairy components but from finished products such as liquid yoghurts.
“The farm, ie the dairy farm, is a natural and true environment for ice cream, and the milk from Vedrine took me back to my childhood with the very first sip. When I created Medenko, I was proud to have created an original product from exclusively Croatian milk during a big crisis for the Croatian dairy industry.
Today, I’m proud that during the time of emigration from rural Croatian areas, we’re creating a product with people who have returned to the countryside by their own choice and who are proving by their own example that it’s very possible. There were a number of challenges in designing the products, from making the recipes, which I had to adjust to the quality of the milk, to the packaging where two visually very different brands had to be merged.
We produce the Croatian Premium ice cream in our small factory in Samobor, and diligent people from the Vedrine cheese factory take care of the distribution and sales. In creating and choosing the flavours, we tried to cover all of the basic taste groups: basic, chocolate, fruit, nuts… “, explained Ivana Bakovic, the owner of Medenko.
They “launched” six flavours on the market – Varenika a la Splitska torta (Split cake), sour with cherries and chocolate, chocolate yogurt with raspberries, Varenika with hazelnuts and chocolate, Liquid yogurt with strawberries and Yuzu basa (citrus).
“Our production is based on fresh products, with a shelf life of five to fifteen days, so we were forced to start producing a durable product due to market variability, especially in the summer months, when our main market – Zagreb, almost closes down. Fate somehow intervened because Ivana from Medenko contacted us just then. A small circle of people have had the opportunity to try out Croatian Premium ice cream and the feedback from that has been fantastic. We think that with our products and Medenko’s knowledge we really have a premium product. But, in the end, let’s let the wider audience decide on that,” Mileusnic stated.
Croatian Premium ice cream will be marketed through specialised stores (Mrkvica, Grga Cvarak, Speceraj, Zelena baka, Duckas, Skarnicl, Grincajg in Samobor, abd Koni in Gospic) with which they are already successfully cooperating and in Vedrine’s stores at the Kvatric and Tresnjevka markets in Zagreb, as well as down in Zadar. In addition, they are in negotiations with several top catering and hospitality companies and a hotel company.
“We have about 70 cows who are milked, and with the young ones, the number is always around 130. All our products, including the ice cream, are made exclusively from the milk of our cows.
We don’t buy milk and we don’t have any subcontractors because we believe that we’re very specific in the market when it comes to our raw materials, our milk, and we want to stay that way. In addition to all that, we have complete production control: from the production of the cow feed to the finished product. The most sought after products are our fruit yogurts that come in 18 different flavors, and Varenika and Skripavacpa,” concluded Mileusnic.
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