**Tony La Verde and Anthony Abdelsayed are creators of Galaxy Swirl, a flavor created exclusively for Downey. (Photo by Alex Dominguez)**

DOWNEY — There’s a new ice cream flavor in Downey, and it is Suite.

On National Ice Cream day last month, hometown ice cream architects Tony La Verde and Anthony Abdelsayed – of Mashup Ice Cream Co. – released a new flavor in collaboration with Embassy Suites Downey.

According to the duo, Embassy Suites staff reached out to them after word started to spread about their product.

“We were coming to realize that what we are trying to do takes a lot of explaining to people, to understand,” said La Verde. “But once they do get that information and they start to see the potential about what we’re trying to create, they get on board immediately.”

It took around five months of work and testing before ultimately landing on Galactic Swirl, an ube and vanilla swirl with hints of coconut, described as “an ube Tres leches.”

“We had pitched maybe eight flavors total with the idea in mind that every single one that we pitched to them could be combined with each other to go for that outer space nebula kind of effect that we were going for, leaning into the whole aerospace theme of the city and the hotel itself,” said La Verde.

Abdelsayed said that the flavor “strikes a chord” with Mashup’s mission to expose people to new things.

“Everybody knows and loves vanilla; not everybody is familiar with ube. Bringing the two together could create that spark of interest,” said Abdelsayed. “When we did our tasting, yeah, there were a lot of people who had never had ube before, and it was a unique first experience for them, and they seemed to very much enjoy it.”

Csilla Martin-Arujo, marketing manager at Embassy Suites Downey, said that the Embassy Suites is “always looking to provide unique experiences for our guests.” Upon learning of Mashup, she says the Embassy Suites team was “instantly intrigued.”

“Their goal is to tell a story in every scoop, and we’re trying to tell a story in every stay,” said Martin-Arujo. “We felt like it was a match made in Heaven.”

In addition to being sold in the Embassy’s E’tirie, Galaxy Swirl can also be served atop the toffee caramel cake as part of Brickstone’s Grill’s dessert menu.

Martin-Arujo hopes the ice cream will remain available at the hotel for “years on end.”

“We are hoping to have people come to our hotel, try the dessert or the ice cream itself, and then years to come they’re still thinking about the ice cream and their experience in Downey and they come back to try it again.”

La Verde and Abdelsayed hope that this is just the first collaboration to take place in Downey.

“[Embassy Suites Downey] are now a partner of ours and we want to continue to nurture that relationship,” said Abdelsayed.

“To someone who understands the idea, it makes perfect sense what we’re doing; to those who aren’t really as familiar with it, the idea of a media-centered ice cream company that doesn’t have a shop, that doesn’t really have any distribution, that’s focused more on telling stories seems very convoluted, and sort of counter-productive,” said La Verde. “This is an idea that we’ve quickly realized takes a lot of proof of concept, and knowledge is expensive; information is expensive.”

“So, when we’re given these opportunities… it helps them understand it, it helps them get on board, and it helps us get new supporters.”

Ice cream company creates flavor exclusively for Downey