Ice Cream’s New India Moment

The bigger shift is from season to occasion.” “The opportunity isn’t to make ice cream more expensive, but more interesting, relevant and worth indulging in. Sandeep Devgan on how occasion-led consumption, Indian flavours and meaningful indulgence are reshaping ice cream

Kalpana Ravi

India’s ice-cream habit is moving beyond summer. Increasingly, the category is becoming an after-dinner and late-night indulgence, fuelled by changing lifestyles, digital commerce and a growing appetite for familiar Indian flavours in new formats. In this conversation with AD Mirror, Sandeep Devgan, Founder & CEO, Stonefield Flavours, believes the opportunity is not simply to extend the ice-cream season, but to make the category a larger part of India’s culture of indulgence.

The biggest shift happening in ice cream is from season to occasion.

India has never needed summer to eat something sweet. We finish meals with something sweet, serve desserts to guests and celebrate festivals through food. Ice cream is increasingly entering these existing occasions.

Our consumer study of 3,000 ice-cream consumers indicates that consumption is becoming less dependent on the traditional summer-versus-winter cycle, with indulgence occasions expanding beyond temperature-led consumption. And the market remains vastly underpenetrated. India’s per-capita ice-cream consumption is estimated at around 0.5 litres, leaving significant headroom for growth.

The question for the industry is no longer, “How do we extend the ice-cream season?” It is: “How does ice cream earn a larger place in India’s culture of indulgence?”

The emerging late-night consumption trend reinforces this shift. Data from Ownly, Rapido’s food delivery app, shows that 20,574 ice-cream orders recorded over the last 30 days, 10,429 - more than 51% were placed after 9 PM. Nearly 15% came after 11 PM. The average order value was `237.25, while the largely small, individual-led orders point towards impulse consumption rather than family or bulk purchases.

“The bigger shift is from season to occasion.”

The 9 PM dessert moment

The behaviour itself isn't necessarily new. The format is.

India has been eating something sweet after meals for generations, kheer, payasam, phirni, halwa, mithai and kulfi. What we are seeing now is the modernisation of that behaviour.

Quick commerce and food delivery have made ice cream accessible whenever the craving strikes. The 9 PM purchase is therefore more than a timing statistic; it points to the emergence of a new consumption occasion.

Perhaps the industry isn't creating new behaviour. It is giving an old Indian behaviour a new format, new accessibility and new relevance.

Consumers want experience

What does today's Indian consumer want that they didn't five years ago?

Experience.

Ice cream is no longer just about taste. It is increasingly about texture, visual appeal, flavour combinations, provenance and the feeling the product creates. The Indian consumer is becoming more global while simultaneously becoming more comfortable being Indian. That combination is powerful.

For years, premium meant Belgian chocolate, French vanilla or Italian gelato. The next phase of premiumisation could ask a different question: Can Mysore Pak, filter coffee, saffron kulfi, rabri or tender coconut deliver the same sense of indulgence?

I believe they can. The consumer is increasingly saying: “Give me world-class quality without asking me to leave my identity behind.”

India’s flavour opportunity

This takes us beyond simply talking about the Indianisation of ice cream.

I don't want India simply to Indianise ice cream. I want India to contribute something original to the world’s frozen-dessert culture.

Look at kulfi. We were making it centuries ago dense, rich, slow-reduced milk, nuts, saffron and cardamom. Today, premium frozen desserts are defined by richness, texture, provenance and craftsmanship. India already understands all four. The more interesting question is not, “How do we add an Indian flavour to Western ice cream?”

It is: “What can the world learn from kulfi?”

The opportunity is to take Indian heritage and combine it with modern food science, technology and design to create products that can travel globally.

India rediscovering India

The flavour trend that could surprise the industry is India rediscovering India.

Not nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake, but modern reinterpretation. Kulfi, filter coffee, tender coconut, rabri, paan, regional mangoes, Indian nuts, spices and traditional beverages offer an extraordinary flavour library. Consumers are increasingly looking for novelty anchored in familiarity.

The next global flavour trend from India may not come from inventing something strange. It may come from taking something we have known for generations and treating it with the science and craftsmanship it deserves.

South India is particularly interesting in this context. Consumers here are rooted in strong local taste preferences but are also highly willing to experiment. The region is also ahead with digital consumption, making it an important market for testing new propositions and understanding emerging consumption behaviour.

But consumers don’t experiment simply because something is new. They ask whether it is relevant, credible and worth trying. That makes heritage an important starting point for innovation.

Beyond premiumisation

I would describe the opportunity as meaningful indulgence, rather than premiumisation alone.

India’s ice-cream market is growing rapidly, but the larger opportunity is to increase both the number of occasions and the number of consumers participating in the category.

Premiumisation, urbanisation, impulse consumption and expanding cold-chain infrastructure are creating tailwinds. Younger consumers are also becoming more adventurous, with authenticity, novelty and visual appeal increasingly important to desert experiences.

The opportunity isn’t simply to make ice cream more expensive. It is to make it more interesting, more relevant and more worth indulging in.

Where India goes next

India is entering a more competitive and exciting phase of ice-cream growth. The entry of leading FMCG brands with `10 products signals how much whitespace companies see in the category and how important penetration and distribution will become.

But winning won’t be only about price or distribution. It will be about creating more occasions, better experiences and more distinctive flavours.

For too long, Indian food innovation has sometimes started with the question: “What is happening overseas?”

The next generation should ask a different question: “What has India understood for centuries that the world is only beginning to discover?”

Kulfi is one example. Our regional mangoes, dairy desserts, beverages, spices and traditional flavour combinations are other. “The opportunity is not India catching up with the world. It is India contributing to where the world goes next.”