Handmade tales: Drawing on her Polynesian roots for adventure a Kiwi and her French partner took a leap of faith and left home and family to start their own natural ice cream company. Doris Neubauer reports.
It was during COVID lock-down, when (then) Wellington couple Mariah Whittaker and Allan Blondeau came to ice cream. “We were really bad during the pandemic. We would go down to the supermarket and get treats all the time,” the former sales manager of a fair trade, organic coffee roastery admits. Yet “we never found an ice cream in the supermarket that made us feel good.”
It was an invitation to meddle. Soon, pots and pans of frozen desserts took over the small space of the tiny house the couple used to live in.“When the pandemic hit, we both re-evaluated our lives. We knew we wanted to do a business on our own, we just did not know what that was.” The only thing they knew was that despite their love for coffee, they wanted to stay away from the grind of the industry. Ice cream looked like a sweet deal.
Initially, Sea People was just a side hustle, but they wanted to do it properly. They started scouting for a shop location in Wellington. The universe had other plans though. After failed attempts to sign a lease for a space and lack of call-backs, the couple took a break in the small beach town of Mount Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty. They loved the idea of “ice cream at the beach, not ice cream in the wind”, called realtors and – unlike in the capital – found open doors. “We were here for three days, and everything aligned in Wellington, we tried for six months, and it did not work.”
Allan came to New Zealand nine years ago from London on a supposedly one-year-visa and never left. The couple made Wellington home. But the universe was calling again. “I think we were ready to graduate ourselves out of Wellington, have a lifestyle shift, and the business pushed us to do it”, says Mariah.
Telling the story of their people
Leaving their network, family and friends took a leap of faith, hinting at the voyagers of the Pacific, the ice cream brand was named after. “Their bravery resonated with me”, Mariah says. “I am Polynesian. My nanna and grandpa on my dad’s side are from Tahiti and the Cook Islands. This business was an opportunity for me to reclaim that and tell a story of those people – my people – through a fun way like ice cream.”
Sea People uses te reo Māori in its packaging and follows the seasons of the lunar calendar Maramataka. “Celebrating Matariki was big for us. We also try our best to source local or indigenous-made ingredients.”
Super natural goodness
Organic, fair-trade Peruvian dark chocolate, organic mangoes and Heilala vanilla, that supports grower communities in the Kingdom of Tonga are some of these essentials. While 34-year-old Allan is front of the house, the kitchen is Mariah’s patch. Together with one employee, she takes care that staples like her favourite Mint-Choc Bark never run out. “We also make our own cashew-and-coconut-milk and our gluten-free waffles. Everything we serve is fresh.”
That everything Sea People scoops up is also plant-based and gluten-free is “an added bonus”. Coming from the hospitality industry, the couple saw people switching to alternative milk in coffee and asking for gluten-free versions.
“I am not interested in anything unless it tastes good but we just happened to discover a way of doing ice-cream that tastes like ice cream using plants as opposed to consuming animal products,” she says. “Ninety percent of the customers are not even aware they indulge in plant-based desserts.”
Testing and trying new flavours is an essential part of her job. “I have to keep creating. So I set myself the goal to release two new flavours every month.” This is not only a good way to pilot flavours and well they are perceived, it is also an opportunity to collaborate with brands that align with Sea People such as Raglan chocolate or Drink Honest. “It is a cool way to lift our brand up with other brands and also make it delicious.”
Crossing the seas
More collaborations are on the way. “I want to approach cafes like Little Bird in Auckland to ask if they want to stock our pints. And we’d like get little branded freezers and put them around New Zealand.”
If everything goes according to plan, cafes and eateries will not be the only place to find the ice cream. “Supermarkets have been the goal from day one – just don’t expect us to be in every Countdown overnight. My goal is to get into Farro, Morrisons and other boutique supermarkets within the next twelve months.”
Back to those Pacific voyagers, she says her ten year goal is to cross the seas. “I would love to explore the Asian market. The opportunities there are just wild. I think Sea People could really do that. The business is very scalable, you could pick it up and put it in another space. I love Aotearoa and I hope our HQ will stay here. But I really see us there.”
Mount Maunganui based plant-based, gluten-free ice cream shop “Sea People” opened in March 2021. Visit the store!
