An A-peeling Soft Serve That’s Sustainable, Too
Just two ingredients – bananas and coconut – form the basis of Peel Soft Serve, sold from a cheery yellow-and-green mobile truck parked in a lot outside a fitness center just west of the Arsht Center in downtown Miami. The path that inspired this frozen treat business took creator Valeria Alvarez across the globe, landing on a beach in Bali.
“There were exotic smoothie bowls topped with delicious fruit,” she says. “That triggered the idea. I wanted to bring the idea back.”
Alvarez, 29, was intrigued with starting a business, but she didn’t think her career would end up in food. A native of Bogotá, Colombia, she studied marketing and international business at FIU, before embarking on travels around the world: Southeast Asia, Brazil, Peru, South America and Germany. The fresh, healthy breakfast bowls and smoothies heaped with colorful tropical fruits that she enjoyed in Indonesia gave her a focus and an idea for her business, laying the groundwork for Peel Soft Serve.
Yes, we have lots of bananas
When she returned to Miami, Alvarez visited the Allapattah wholesale produce market to research the variety of fruits. “I kept hearing that everyone has bananas,” she says. Their consistency was good for soft serve, their sweetness was right. “I also found out that bananas are the number-one supermarket item that goes to waste,” she says. By “rescuing” bananas that would likely end up in the dumpster, she was helping solve the problem.
Alvarez wanted to use as few products as possible in her soft serve, and she also wanted to make it vegan. She tested flavors with her small ice cream machine at home, trying almond and oat milk before landing on coconut, using powder for convenience. Add-ons – strawberry, pineapple, mango, homemade peanut butter and granola, local honey from Honi Lifestyle – would add color and flavor.
To sell Peel Soft Serve and its sustainable, healthy story, Alvarez bought a 1988 Italian Ape Piaggio and revamped it in tropical colors to resemble a food truck, equipping it with a blender and ice cream machine. The whimsical three-wheeled truck worked for small events, but when she started getting calls to do more special events, she realized it was time to step up her game. “If I’m going to do this seriously, I’m going to have to get a new trailer.” Her new fully equipped truck, painted by a local artist, has found a regular home at Elev8tion Fitness, where customers can fuel up with a not-too-sweet bowl before or after their workout.
Their response, she says, is positive: “The vegan aspect is great. There’s no added sugar. It’s 1.5 bananas per serving, plus fresh fruit.” But she says she still needs to promote soft-serve as something to eat early in the day. “I think people don’t think of soft serve as breakfast.”
Sustainable Message
Everything is served in compostable bowls with paper straws and wood spoons. Outside the truck, there’s a compost bin for strawberry tops, pineapple peels and other food scraps that get picked up by Garbage to Gold or taken to Earth N Us Farm. Alvarez makes it clear her business is more than just about making good food: “We’re a fully vegan, sustainable company that is raising awareness on food waste and using rescued fruit to prove it,” she says.
Whipping Up a Batch of Soft Serve
Peel Soft Serve is made up of bananas and coconut powder, so it’s dairy-free with no added sugar. On Fridays, Alvarez goes to the produce market in Allapattah [1] to buy “number two” bananas, too brown to sell, but still sweet and delicious. She goes through a couple of boxes a week. She also buys fruits to top her bowls [2]. Peels and produce scraps go into a compost pail [3], which ends up at local compost piles.
Once she’s set up shop, the banana and coconut mixture goes into her ice cream machine and comes out in pale cocoa-colored swirls [4]. Customers can order a plain cup, but there are plenty of options to build a colorful bowl around the soft-serve: The Palenquera, named after the women in Cartagena who carry huge bowls of fruits on their head, adds fresh pineapple and strawberry and coconut flakes; Crunchy B is topped with honey, peanut butter and housemade granola [5]; and Go Mango, heaped with mango and pineapple. Peel’s smoothies use a banana base and add vegan chocolate and fresh mint (Mint Eastwood); peanut butter and chocolate (Something Nutty); mango and pineapple (Piña Chiquita) and strawberries and blueberries (Playa Berry). She offers a vegan protein powder add-on option. Prices start at $5 for a plain cup.
Peel Soft Serve
peelsoftserve.com • Instagram: @peelsoftserve
Open every Saturday and Sunday from 9am-4pm in the parking lot of Elev8tion Fitness, 1625 N. Miami Ave. The spiffy little Ape Piaggio is available for events once they’re allowed to start again.
