Professionals Tamborine Mountain 
Gallery Walk has more than a few stops where lovers of sweets can indulge— but none more unique than Mumma Duck’s, where Kay Collett peddles not just top-notch confectionary but unique gift items and other miscellany. Find out the story behind such a unique combination, as well as other fascinating tales of this charming locale.
by Kyle Hitchmough
Where do you source your products from?
We make our own gourmet fudge, which is different to the other fudges on the mountain. Different ingredients— we’re best known for using Belgian chocolates in our fudges. Very high cream content so the fudge is really chewy like the old original English fudge, and we’ve designed it so that it won’t melt. We don’t use fillers, so the product is really stable. We post interstate and worldwide, and it works really well because of the quality. We also own Tamborine Mountain Rock Candy, and we have several varieties of that. We started that about six months ago and it’s gotten really big.
What’s your best-selling item?
You’d have to go into a top 3, because it varies from day to day. Our biggest sellers are fudge, rock candy, and the gelato. It’s all about quality and people enjoying it and wanting to come back again. Probably 80-85% of our customers are Brisbane or Gold Coast-based people that come up here. They’re coming back, and we want them to want to come back.
You specialise in a particular brand of gelato, that being Maleny. Do you have a fixed set of their flavours, or do you rotate them?
We do. We stock Maleny gelato, they’ve won multiple awards, and it’s just a really good quality product. They do probably 60 flavours, we rotate about 25-30 through. We’ve got a half-dozen or so that we rotate. They do a fabulous crème caramel and salted caramel. So many nice fruit ones, like their strawberry, I really love that. Then they do passionfruit cheesecake, which is fabulous. I have ordered in nearly all of their flavours over time and I’ve picked the ones I felt were the nicest on my palate, and then I test them on the customers and see how they go. I could easily fill two freezers with them. Hazelnut roche is huge, it tastes like a Ferrero Rocher chocolate. I have indulged in a fair quantity of that. Mars Bar, they do a beautiful rich chocolate that has a little bit of liquid caramel through, huge seller. It depends on age group, too. They do a marshmallow gelato, the kids love that. The whole thing about the store was that I was trying to find brands that weren’t here, rather than competing with anyone. We brought in Crow’s Nest soft drink. It’s an obscure little soft drink company, but the flavours taste like the flavours from when I was a kid. They’ve been going since 1902. I’ve tried to add things so people can go to three different lolly shops and buy different things.
What do you think sets Mumma Duck’s apart from the other lolly shops on the mountain?
I think we’ve put a lot of work into branding our company and having a style. We put a really big effort into speaking to our customers. We’re not pushy salespeople, but we like to explain our products, we do tastings on our fudges, gelato and sorbet, we even sell honey from down the road, and we’ll explain about the honey and the medicinal properties of it. We like to be informative to our customers, we like that old-fashioned customer service. We do it because we actually enjoy it. There’s no point in having a store if you don’t enjoy it.
You also sell gift items and other eclectic bits and bobs. How did that become part of your business?
I am an eclectic person! Over the years, your tastes change. I like to shop and buy pretty things that I like, and I get really good feedback. Even if people aren’t in the mood to buy on the day, so many people say to me “wow, you have such beautiful, fabulous things here”. I spend a lot of time just trying to source things that are a little bit different.
Do you find there are any particular trends in your clientele?
No. We have regular schoolkids that come in every week, we have young people, old people… all different age groups, because we try and source some of the old-fashioned lollies, like Frosted Caramels. They were a big thing when I was young. A lot of the younger generation will never have heard of them, but the older people go “Oh my god, frosted caramels!” I’ve tried to source as much as I can that are still being made by someone. I try not to stock what Woolies stocks. I think there’s something for everyone in our store.
Are you a local? What’s your opinion on the Tamborine Mountain area and community?
Yes, we’ve lived on the mountain for about 20 years. I’ve been coming up here since I was 14 and I’ve always loved it. The fresh air, the acreage… we’ve always loved the mountain. You get halfway up the mountain and wind your windows down; you can smell the air and you relax. It’s just a wonderful place. It’s a quiet place, but there’s everything that we’d need here. We’re great believers in shopping local. There’s a couple of the national parks we like to do regularly, go down to the waterfalls… it’s just a nice, quiet environment.
Do you have any standout stories or memorable experiences from your time here?
It’s really sweet that there are a few, really special clients that have problems who come in on a regular basis, and it’s lovely that they’ve found something here that makes them happy.
We are always looking for new topics for our blog. If there’s something you like to see more of, email your suggestions to: social@professionalsserendipity.com.au, or email the writer at kyle.hitchmough@hotmail.com.
