INTERNATIONAL dessert franchise, Heavenly Desserts, has joined forces with Asian-inspired grocery brand, itsu, to launch its TikTok-famed sweet chocolate bao buns directly into its stores nationwide.
Set to launch in Heavenly Desserts’ 48 restaurants UK-wide, the vegan, warm fluffy bao buns are filled with a smooth melt-in-the-middle chocolate filling and are served alongside a delicious caramel dipping sauce.
This addition to the Heavenly Desserts menu results from itsu’s drive to continually innovate ranges with new flavours that excite modern audiences with trending ingredients and unique concepts.
The bao buns created by itsu will be available at Heavenly Desserts’ restaurants, and in turn will become a core item on its ‘dessert tapas’ menu.
Ravinder Faguraha, project support manager at Heavenly Desserts, said: “Partnering with itsu to bring these sweet treats into our menu was such a joy. It’s the largest partnership we’ve embarked on, which holds true to our unrelenting commitment to innovation in this space.
“After a lot of consumer research and flavour profiling and following on from the popularity of our mochi desserts which we announced in summer last year, we found that bao buns are setting a trend in the dessert sector as itsu has become the go-to brand in the UK market for this recognisable Asian dish.
“Most Brits know bao buns to come with a savoury filling such as duck and hoisin sauce, but they can be made slightly differently by adding a sweet middle. So, it was a no-brainer that these would attract new customers familiar with the cuisine to Heavenly Desserts.
As a pioneering Asian inspired restaurant and grocery brand, itsu is based in the UK. The global company was founded in 1997 by Julian Metcalfe, co-founder of sandwich chain Pret A Manger.
Yousif Aslam, co-founder and managing director at Heavenly Desserts, said: “Partnering with household name brands like itsu is such an exciting step for us. We are always drawing inspiration from other cuisines and recently launched our springtime drinks range which were crafted from authentic Japanese flavours such as matcha and yuzu.
These have been really popular, so alongside the bao buns we are also announcing our Strawberry Daquiri mocktail and extending our springtime drinks into summer for the perfect refresher.”
Julian Metcalfe, founder of itsu, said: “Sweet Bao is a historic breakthrough – every now and then, the team hits a bullseye; this is one such lucky example. After more than 50 failed trials, we managed to get rich quality chocolate to flow, molten warm, from inside the fluffy bao bun. It’s the result of our dedicated 10-person strong NPD team who have worked tirelessly for one year to create this phenomenal first-to-market new product.”
For more information about Heavenly Desserts and its menus visit: https://www.heavenlydesserts.co.uk
