Melty's opens in Santurce, a frozen yogurt shop where you can build your own craving

What happens when science, determination, and love for Puerto Rico come together? In Santurce, that combination took the form of a swirl of frozen yogurt.

Since Aug. 29, on Fernández Juncos you'll find Melty's, where they use a machine called the Little Gem, from New Zealand, that takes yogurt from Vaca Negra in Hatillo and turns it, on the spot, into whatever flavor you're in the mood for. "Melty's is ideal for finding what you're craving," Jeylines Santiago Vargas, 24, owner of the business, which now employs six people, told Platea.

You'll find her behind the counter. She's a biomedical sciences student with a goal of studying pharmacy. Santiago found the push to start a business when she became pregnant. "What motivated us most is that while we were talking about opening the business, my pregnancy happened (…)," she said. "And being able to have this running to build a future for our daughter," she added.

The perfect swirl

Before it was yogurt, Melty's was ice cream. "We wanted to open a concept, an ice cream shop, something different and something for everyone, customizable," Santiago said. They tried soft serve, but it limited them on flavors, and then came the Little Gem machine from New Zealand, with the Real Fruit Ice Cream concept: vanilla ice cream and cream blended with fruit.

The first attempt didn't connect at the markets they were attending with the machine. "People weren't getting it, and they wanted to mix the ice cream with other things like Nutella, simple things, and they didn't want to mix in the fruit," Santiago explained. That's when she understood that Greek yogurt had to enter the picture.

From those early blends came today's Melty's, where you walk in, choose whether you want Greek yogurt or ice cream as your base, pick the fruit you want blended in, and add whatever toppings you like.

To open the shop, Santiago put in $20,000 of her own savings and secured $40,000 through a loan from the Departamento de Desarrollo Económico y Comercio (DDEC), under the Mujer Empresaria program, backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Of everything she has experienced in these first months, what has surprised her most is how open people are to trying new things, and the excitement she feels about what's ahead.

"It excites me a lot to be able to bring something new to the market, something that maybe isn't very common," she said.

A bet on local

Santiago chose Yogurt de Vaca Negra for its quality and freshness: "Their ingredients are really very clean." (…) "They're quite strict about their recipe," she added. Choosing Vaca Negra as a supplier was not an isolated decision. Melty's approach is, beyond guaranteeing freshness, to support local producers.

“Being able to lend a hand and support someone who is going through that (starting a business in Puerto Rico) is the most important thing to me”

The toppings section works as a showcase for Puerto Rican producers: coconut flakes, granola, 60% cacao and other island-made products, with no refined sugars.

Looking ahead, Santiago hopes to "have more products, coffees, a broader offering. And to be able to reach other towns as well."

What to order

Santiago has her recommendations depending on what you're craving that day:

• Chocolate mood: yogurt blended with fresh mixed berries. For toppings, the chocolate crunch drizzle with kataifi, a Greek dough made of very fine phyllo threads, similar to thin noodles.

• Something more refreshing: yogurt blended with mango and strawberry. For toppings, coconut flakes from Puerto Rico.

• Her personal favorite: yogurt blended with mango and banana. "It comes out a spectacular color and goes with anything you put on it," she said.

This content was translated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).