What started as a mission to make soft serves healthier has grown into a booming dessert business that’s keeping things light, low in sugar, 100 percent vegan and now, even off grid.
We’re lakeside in the late afternoon sun at Pizzey Park with a dessert genius whose sweet ideas are as innovative as his energy credentials. As an entrepreneur with a passion for healthy indulgence and sustainable energy, Danny Bogatie’s ethos happens to align nicely with the Mercedes-Benz GLA 250 e Hybrid.
“It’s got a really responsive throttle and great control,” says Danny.
Combing innovative dynamics with timeless elegance, the GLA e is well equipped, featuring a panoramic sliding roof, 20-inch alloy wheels, Burmester® surround sound system, 360-degree camera, ambient lighting, dual zone climate control and wireless phone charging.
Pairing a 1.3 litre turbocharged petrol engine with an 11.5kWh lithium-ion battery, the GLA 250 e Hybrid delivers up to 65km of electric-only driving. It’s not only clean; it’s clever. Just like the dessert setup it’s sharing a photoshoot with.
Parked beside the GLA is a retrofitted trailer that might just be the future of frozen sweet treats. But we’ll come back to that—let’s talk about why Danny founded the nutritious dessert empire CocoWhip in the first place.
If you’ve ever sampled one of these guilt-free soft serves, you’ll know the texture is super creamy, the flavour is delicious and subtle, and it’s packed with prebiotics and postbiotics. But the inspiration behind the brand came from the kind of everyday chaos most parents know well.
“My son was representing Australia in kayaking, and my daughter was swimming at national level and afterwards they’d always want to get a soft serve; but I always thought an unhealthy treat defeated the purpose of all their hard work,’’ says Danny.
That was the lightbulb moment.
Sitting beside him in the passenger seat, his wife was sipping coconut water and casually suggested, “Why don’t you just make a soft serve out of this?’’ It was a comment that sparked months of intense product development, but the dairy-free, vegan treat, packed with gut-friendly probiotics was an instant hit.
This is no surprise when you consider the facts: each 100 gram serve contains just four grams of fat, eight grams of sugar, and is made with real, natural ingredients.
“The thing that separates CocoWhip from any of the other vegan soft serves around is that we’re the original healthy soft serve, so we don’t use refined sugar and animal fat to make it work and taste good,’’ says Danny.
Ten years on, CocoWhip is sold throughout Australia and is exported internationally. And just when you thought things couldn’t get any cooler, enter CocoBerri Healthy Acai. The newest addition to the CocoWhip lineup, CocoBerri Healthy Acai is the answer to the sugar-loaded acai bowl trend.
“The average acai bowl has anywhere from 20-45 grams of sugar, where CocoBerri Healthy Acai only has just 8.4 grams,’’ says Danny. “It’s a complete game changer.”
The product’s raw ingredients are produced in South Australia and distributed from CocoWhip’s Burleigh Heads headquarters. Cocowhip and CocoBerri Healthy Acai are ambient and shelf stable, so no refrigeration is required for storage, considerably reducing the ecological footprint.
But for Danny, a healthy product wasn’t enough, he wanted the entire experience to reflect his values.
“We’ve built CocoWhip around the idea of wellness, and that doesn’t just stop at what we serve our customers,” he says. “It’s how we operate too.”
With the help of Won Energy, the CocoWhip trailer is now powered by 20 kilowatt-hours of Freedom Won LiTE Residential batteries and an 8kW Sunsynk inverter; meaning no diesel generator, no emissions, and virtually no noise.
“Partnering with Won Energy has enabled us to take our wellness commitment to the next level by serving clean treats from clean energy,” Danny says. “It’s commercially smart. We can set up in more places, save on running costs, and keep everything aligned with our brand values.”
Led by Justin Miller, Won Energy was created to help both businesses and homeowners transition to smart, sustainable power. Won Energy is the official Queensland distributor for the world leading Freedom Won batteries, Sunsynk inverters and EvBeny (ZJ Beny) EV chargers. Its mission is to bring future-ready energy solutions into practical use across homes, developments and businesses like CocoWhip.
