Mandurah’s ‘coffee in a cone’ craze shut down over patent issues

But their hopes were crushed when they discovered their new experiment, the “woffee”- coffee served in a chocolate-lined waffle cone - was in fact already a patented product and could no longer be served.

When the Mandurah Mail turned up to give this latest craze a go, we were met with apologies from owner Sophie Price.

“We just obviously see things on the internet, and we gave it a go for a little bit of fun, and it sort of spiraled out of control,” Ms Price said.

“We were happy about that, but obviously if someone’s come up with this idea and spent lots of money patenting it then, yeah.”

Dayne Levinrad is the South African inventor of the woffee, and his creations are almost a science.

Layers of chocolate with different cocoa contents prevent the cone from dissolving too quickly, but apparently customers only have about 10 minutes to finish the drink.

“He’s patented the cone shape with the hot liquid inside so that no-one else can use it…But you know he’s spent a lot of time and a lot of money doing this and that’s his business so, fair enough to him,” Ms Price said.

Ms Price said there were discussions with Mr Levinrad about him manufacturing and selling the woffees in Australia.

“We’re going to be the exclusive stockist of his cones, and then we can do it ourselves,” she said.

Ms Price also has plans to experiment with different ideas, like making an edible coffee cup with a flat bottom.

“We do try and think of stuff that’s a little bit different, just try and bring something that hasn’t been done in Mandurah, so people have a little bit of choice, and it’s our point of difference,” she said.