Lateral thinking, combined with goodwill, has produced a "real taste of Dunedin".
Gourmet Ice Cream director Mark Scorgie is using extract from Speight's Old Dark beer and Cadbury chocolate to create truffles to be sold locally - at first.
He said yesterday he had plans for the truffles to be sold throughout New Zealand.
The first truffles went on sale last night, at Centre City New World.
Chris Snow, the manager of the Speight's Heritage Centre, phoned Mr Scorgie to alert him to an approach to Speight's from an Auckland manufacturer who proposed to make truffles using Speight's Old Dark.
"Chris said: 'You should do it'. I asked: `When do you want them'?"Mr Scorgie already made Speight's Old Dark ice cream and was keen to have a go at the truffles.
He made his first batch using Belgian chocolate.
"They were just beautiful. I knew they would sell well and Speight's wanted them for promotional activity."
Mr Snow said that using Cadbury chocolate would make the truffles a true Dunedin product and he put Mr Scorgie in touch with Cadbury Confectionery events co-ordinator Lee-Anne Anderson.
Mr Scorgie talked to Cadbury staff about the flavour profile to get the right chocolate, sent them samples and the deal was completed.
"It shows that sometimes big firms are prepared to help out the little guys. I have had a hand out from Speight's and Cadbury to develop a new product," he said.
