For Dr Tapiwa Guzha, enjoying frozen desserts should always go along with a story.
“Food is what brings people in, but then you want them to share a story with you – that’s what I’m interested in,” says Guzha, currently a research fellow in the department of genetics at Stellenbosch University.
Originally from Zimbabwe, Guzha has always been interested in cooking. “I grew up with my grandma, who didn’t believe in gender roles or division of labour. We were in the garden, the maize field, in the kitchen, doing the roof shingles – everybody did whatever needed to be done. That’s how it started.”
When he moved to Stellenbosch around three years ago he started making frozen desserts, and launched his frozen dessert business, Tapi Tapi.
A Tapi Tapi Tea-flavored ice-cream in a Monkey Fruit bowl. PHOTO: Ané van Zyl
“Earlier this year, after a rough patch in my life, I realised how short life is, and that I need to do the things I really want to do. In July this year I just made it happen. I made an Instagram page and started advertising my ice cream.”
Guzha started with the “normal flavors” – strawberry, vanilla, chocolate, mint. “Since then I have made around 300 different ice cream flavors – and I’ve eaten most of it,” he says with a laugh.
Melt Hugo, who recently submitted his master’s thesis under Dr Guzha’s supervision, requested one of these flavors. “I asked him to make me strawberry and lime sorbet. It was the first time he made it, and it was absolutely delicious. The texture and value was amazing. I would recommend it to just about anyone,” Hugo says.
According to Dr Guzha, Black jack if often considered a weed, but it’s actually quite an important and nutritious leafy that’s consumed all across the continent. “It has multiple reported health benefits and can be dried out for out of season consumption.” INFOGRAPHIC: Ané van Zyl
Dessert that takes you back to your childhood
“What I’ve found is that ice cream is very eurocentric. The flavors reflect nothing from the country, the continent or my people. It’s a problem for me, because I like desserts, but I never get that representation.”
“I wanted to create something that represents the flavors that I grew up with, and other Africans grew up with as well. So when you have a bite, it takes you to your childhood. I also like to introduce people to flavors they’ve never had before, like ice cream with roasted peanuts.”
On heritage day this year, Guzha hosted his first ice cream tasting. “We had nine courses – which is a lot of ice cream! People were enjoying it, but you could see the sugar crash. I’ve now introduced more savory items as well, instead of just sugar,” he says.
Some of the flavors available from Tapi Tapi include baked clay gelato, pawpaw (papaya) and ginger sorbet, and loquat ice cream with kumquat chunks pickled in brandy. Dr Guzha has also experimented with beer and Jack Daniels ice cream. All his sorbets are vegan friendly, and he offers dairy and egg free ice cream and gelato.
Dominic Nicholas, honors student in the department of genetics at SU, is also very fond of the desserts made by Guzha.
“Knowing Tapiwa as a scientist, I was a little skeptical about his ice cream at first. Not because I doubted his abilities, but because I honestly had never heard of half the ingredients he used to make the ice creams,” Nicholas says.
“Many of the flavors are exotic mixtures of fruits, nuts and even rice. I just couldn’t understand how any of those combinations could be delicious. Turns out I was very wrong.”
Nicholas placed an order for “the most vanilla choice on his menu”, a malted chocolate ice cream.
“Needless to say, it literally blew my mind. To this day it’s probably the best ice cream I’ve ever tasted.”