Răzvan Idicel

WHO IS RĂZVAN IDICEL?

Răzvan Rusu from Reghin started his business when he was 24 years old. In 2012, as a student of business management at Cluj-Napoca, he started to research into setting up a fruit collection centre at Idicel forest, Transylvania. After falling in love with the local people and area and being inspired by the wild cherry trees from the village and forest, he decided to start his jam making project.

WHAT DO THEY DO?

In the June he put up posters throughout the village calling the local people to bring him cherries from the forest. He sold his phone and used his saving to purchase these cherries all summer long. His Aunt Vernonica Gavrilaș passed on much of her wisdom, kindness & patience and made the jam with Răazvan. This was how it started... A few months later, after visiting an international food show in Paris with the products and after that joining with an investor in London, Dulceața lu' Răzvan was born.

THE PRODUCE...

He built a production unit on the edge of the forest that looked like a traditional peasant house of the area, where initially only 3 people worked for him. Concerned only with the promoting the authenticity of the product and the natural ingredients that are all foraged from Idicel forest. The jam is made only by the traditional method of cooking in a cauldron like pan over a wood fire from honest, traditional recipes. Razvan says the secret to the jams is 'fire management'. His range of jams beautifully encompasses the wild fruits of a Transylvanian forest and includes black cherry, sour cherry, yellow cherry, bitter cherry, blueberry, blackcurrant and plum.