With the closure of bars and art galleries, Dhyan Ho, owner of Sathon favourite indie hotspot Jam, has gone from drinker to teetotaller to a man with a sweet tooth.
"My body was probably just craving the sugars and carbs I got from beer," he laughs. Ho soon realised that the "best thing in the world" was ice cream to satisfy those cravings. And so was born, Wua.
"The name 'Wua' is a bit of an inside joke. My wife, Napanarit 'Butter' Savantrach and I had a dog named Wua, which means cow in Thai. If you were drunk enough at Jam, you'd maybe mistake him for a small cow, as he had similar markings," says Ho. Wua the dog is now the face of the ice cream and adorns all the packaging.
Though the ice cream is vegan, it wasn't out of the necessity of wanting it to be vegan. "If life was an RPG video game, my main quest would be to make the best ice cream. I simply did not see how I could make the best ice cream that could not be enjoyed by everyone, including the lactose intolerant. Not to mention environmental or animal welfare reasons," explains Ho.
Wua's ice cream base is made from locally-grown, organic cashew nuts from Chon Buri. "These make the ice cream creamier and a little bit nutty but still fairly neutral taste-wise. I've done countless trials and experiments, and I'm still experimenting all the time," says Ho.
Though Wua serves favourites like Salted caramel, Cashew cream and dark choc chip, Black sesame white miso, Ho switches it up and adds different ingredients like nuts or brittle. He is also a good listener as he always takes notes of his friend's crazy suggestions. "Sometimes I'll try something completely experimental and weird that I've been wanting to do for ages, like Massaman white chocolate with peanut brittle. Because I churn everything in-house it's easy for me to rotate flavours and this keeps it fun -- for me, too."
Almost all the flavours are based on what is available locally, with Ho sourcing the best raw ingredients. The organic cocao is from Infinite Cocao in Rayong, the coffee is a single origin Robusta, grown and roasted by Gong Coffee in Kra Buri, Ranong. The mulberries are from Khunta mountain in Chiang Rai and the organic mangosteens are from Nakhon Si Thammarat.
"As we have only just started out, I don't really know if we have established any 'signature flavours' yet. Our fruit sorbets are definitely seasonal and only the mango one is available all year-round," says Ho.
A single scoop of Wua is priced at B90 and a pint, which is about four scoops, is B340. If you're a child like me and like your toppings, order the Dark chocolate fudge brownies with 70% dark organic, single-origin chocolate from Shabar for B70 each or B240 for four.
Ho also plans to add Chewy caramel cookies to the Wuaverse and many new flavours. "Eventually the spirit of Wua told me he will only be content with complete world domination, so we will be making plans for that, too," he chuckles.
Wua Ice cream can be ordered via FB.com/WuaIceCream, IG: @wuaicecream. Orders over B1,000 include free delivery within Bangkok.
