Rokiah Mahmud
A popular current trend that can be seen among the local food vendor scene, particularly at stalls, pop-up sale events or on social media platforms is the sale of fruit cocktails.
These food items are mixtures of several types of small, diced pieces of freshly cut fruits such as apple, pineapple, pear, watermelon and many more.
Among the vendors who have ventured into selling fruit cocktails for several months are Nur Faizah binti Ja’afar and her husband Nur Erdy bin Md Dily Alias, who have added the sweet delicacy to their menu.
Known as Bussku Kitchen, their business has been established since 2018, starting out by selling iced tea. They then proceeded to venture into the fruit cocktail business just recently at the Pasar Pelbagai Barangan Gadong or, as it is popularly known, the Gadong Night Market.
Speaking to the Bulletin, Nur Faizah shared that both she and her husband put full commitment into running their food and beverage business to succeed, with the dedication, determination and efforts applied since day one.
As she highlighted, the challenges were particularly tough during the COVID-19 outbreak, with one example being that there were fewer customers at the time.
“Alhamdulillah, we managed to overcome such difficulties.”
Nur Faizah noted that her family, especially her grandparents, have had a deep interest in running a business – an interest that her husband also similarly share.
She explained that the idea to add fruit cocktails to their menu was inspired by neighbouring countries Malaysia and Indonesia.
“During our first trial in selling fruit cocktails, we were nervous and unsure of how the public would respond and support this type of product,” said Nur Faizah.
To their surprise, the fruit cocktails ended up receiving tremendously positive reviews and support not only from their regular customers, but also the general public.
“We cut fresh fruits and put it in separate containers according to its type,” she said, explaining that customers can fill their bowl or containers as much as they want at a fixed price.
“For the fruit cocktail, we will provide at least seven to 10 types of fresh fruits for customers to choose from,” Nur Faizah explained.
“Some will add as much as they want, while some filling their bowl of containers just enough as they wanted to enjoy the creamy cocktail taste topping on top of the fruits.”
“We cannot deny that the power of social media, especially TikTok, plays a significant role in promoting our fruit cocktail business. Within three days, we managed to sell about 40 to 50 bowls of fruit cocktails after we posted in our business social media.”
However, Nur Faizah noted that sometimes it is difficult to ensure a steady supply of fresh fruits, especially the seasonal ones. In addition to this, she highlighted the fact that prices of these fruits also keep increasing, and it was therefore quite a challenge for them to maintain the supply.
“Sometimes the fruits are not available or the price has been increased. Therefore, we would find alternatives,” she said.
“Even with the price hike in fruits, we would try to make our customers understand on the availability of the seasonal fruits, and Alhamdulillah, they understand and have continued to support us.”
Nur Faizah expressed her hope that customers will continue to support local businesses for them to sustain and succeed.
