Story
By the shore of Jiushan Lake stands a small ice-cream stall with no fancy storefront. Four generations have kept it going, along with the memories that have grown around it. Its owner, Huang Suping, has been praised by Shen Hongfei, chief consultant to A Bite of China (a Chinese culinary documentary), as the maker of ¡°the most luxurious luxury in all of Wenzhou¡±. The luxury is not the price. It is a flavour that has lasted nearly a century and cannot be replicated.
At the heart of Huang¡¯s craft is her insistence on keeping that taste unchanged. For decades, Jiushan Ice Cream has offered only one flavour. As new flavours appeared and people suggested expanding the range, she turned them all down. ¡°If I change the flavour, it¡¯s no longer Mom¡¯s taste.¡± She insists on using local good-quality fresh milk and refuses to add flavourings, colourings or other additives. That insistence comes from something her mother taught her: ¡°Only good ingredients stand the test of time.¡±
That care comes down to something simple: a freshly baked crisp cone, a scoop of creamy ice cream and a sprinkle of black sesame. The ¡°luxury¡± is not the price, but a flavour that four generations have kept unchanged for nearly a century. For countless people in Wenzhou, summer begins with that first bite by the lake. The taste, the summer days and the coolness after a swim have become part of the city¡¯s most treasured collective memory.
Huang¡¯s decades of persistence have carried the ¡°taste of Mom¡± into the present. In 2023, Jiushan Ice Cream was inscribed on the intangible cultural heritage list of Lucheng District. In 2024, it was recognised as part of the seventh batch of ¡°Wenzhou Time-Honoured Brands¡±. As imitations appeared on the market, Huang chose to register her own portrait as a trademark. "Others can copy the name," she says, "but they cannot copy my taste" ¡ª the confidence of someone who knows her product cannot be replaced.
The craft has passed from her mother to Huang, then to her son as the third generation, and now to her granddaughter as the fourth ¡ª all of them have taken up the "mixing stick." On holidays, the family still gathers at the stall by the lake to watch over the family business together.
This is a story about the perseverance of a flavour, about family inheritance, and about an ordinary woman who spent a lifetime on her craft. In an increasingly loud world, Huang and her little stall still stand quietly by Jiushan Lake, handing every passerby an unchanging, warm "taste of Mom".