The freezer aisle of a Metro Manila supermarket is not usually a place where cultural memory is made. But John Marcelo, a former professional racecar driver, saw something missing there. Row after row of Rocky Road, vanilla, chocolate, and ube—the same predictable lineup he had grown up with. “I wanted to create my own brand,” he told BusinessWorld in March 2026, after a grocery run that ended with a simple question: why couldn’t the ice cream aisle taste like a Filipino merienda?
A Heritage Line Built on Rice, Coconut, and Tablea
Marcelo’s Microcreamery, which formally launched in Makati on March 18, 2026, answers that question with a lineup that reads like a kakanin counter: Inutak, Ube Macapuno Champorado, Latik-Latik, Mangga’t Suman, Bilo-Bilo, and Chocolate Champorado. These are not novelty flavors built for social media shock value. They are familiar desserts—smoked purple yam pudding, chocolate rice porridge, toasted coconut curds, mango and sticky rice—translated into frozen form with a small-batch production model the brand calls a “microcreamery.”
The technical challenge was real. Marcelo recalls rice-based batches emerging rock-hard from the freezer, and fruit chunks turning icy rather than tender. The solution involved slower stewing methods and rethinking how traditional components behave at below-zero temperatures. The result is a texture that preserves the chew and depth of the original desserts rather than stripping them into syrupy approximations.
Coconut Milk as the Quiet Workhorse
While the brand also produces dairy-based flavors, several of its Heritage Line variants—including Inutak, Latik-Latik, Mangga’t Suman, and Bilo-Bilo—are built on a non-dairy coconut milk base. That choice is practical and cultural at once. Coconut milk is the backbone of countless Filipino dishes, from laing to ginataang gulay, and it gives the ice cream a natural richness that does not rely entirely on cream.
Marcelo frames the sourcing as part of the mission. The company buys raw materials directly from local coconut and tablea farmers, avoiding middlemen where possible. “Our drive is really to partner with local coconut farmers, local tablea farmers, to really help,” he said. Pints retail at around P469 and are now available in Landers, The Marketplace, Robinsons Supermarket, Shopwise, and Romulo Café.
Award Recognition and an Export Ambition
In July 2026, Marcelo’s Microcreamery took home the Best Specialty & Gourmet Frozen Dessert of the Year at the Katha Awards, a Department of Trade and Industry-backed recognition for product design and craftsmanship. The award arrived barely a year after the brand’s commercial rollout, but the export plan was already in motion: the company is already selling in the Middle East, Australia, Canada, and the United States, with talks underway for Malaysia and Vietnam.
The logic behind that outward push is demographic. “We thought that the Filipinos overseas, they definitely miss all our kakanins,” Marcelo said. For a brand that began with a grocery-aisle frustration, the ambition is straightforward—put the taste of a Filipino afternoon merienda into a pint that can travel. For the full launch story and flavor details, see the original BusinessWorld report: New ice cream brand pushes Filipino flavors.
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