How many of you sell soft serve ice cream?

[ByTheSlice]

I’m considering a pizza truck that also sells soft serve gelato. For those that serve soft serve how popular is it? How % of your sales does it account for ? What machines are you using? What machines are reliable?

Thanks
Dan

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

I used to have a 2 flav Taylor…wish I still did…not so sure 'bout a soft serve/pizza truck…tight/tight space…

 

[ByTheSlice]

Patriot,
Why do you wish you still had it? Why do you no longer have it? I’ve been looking into trailers as well due to the space concerns. I don’t know much about these machines so any info about their size would be great.
Thanks
Dan

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

hurricane charlie took my roof in '04…sold nearly everything b4 my restart a few yrs ago…

you will only have space for a small counter-top unit IMHO plus the storage of liquid product & pizza stuff…it will limit u 2 a lower volume machine & you’ll need extra power to run it…BIG machines nee lottsa HP to make 'em work

I used to make pizza & ice cream combo’s - very successful 4 home delivery…

 

[Integraoligist]

When we were first opening I was planning on getting a Tylor 2 flavor soft serve machine that would also do Custard and Geleto… but a Dairy Queen opened across the street from us about 3 months later so instead of Soft Serve, we got a Hard ice cream cooler and do well with it. Of course Dairy Queen makes a killing on soft serve… machine would cost us $20k but when your cost for a single cone is $.20 and you sell it for $1.99, you’d make it back in a couple of weeks… as long as you advertise the crap out of it.

 

[Patriot_sPizza]

you can buy a decent used older model for less than 2K if ya keep your eye out 4 one…

 

[JaronAC]

We opened up with a two flavor Taylor, planning to use it to do gelato as well as 2 2-flavor soft-serve wellsprings for frozen yogurt. About 5 minutes into it, we realized that the Taylor (the C02, which is better for custard) made horrible gelato so we upgraded to a Bravo Trittico. The Bravo’s gelato is so amazing that we honestly couldn’t sell more than 1-2 yogurts a day, so we moved the Wellsprings. So now we carry 30 flavors of our own gelato flavors (gave up on the pregel pastes too) and are killing it with nothing but a tabletop unit.

I guess there is no point to my story … but I will say never just go out and buy an ice cream machine because its cheap. Buy a quality product that makes a quality product (and if you can do THAT cheaply, all the better). We had nothing but misery from our two Taylors and wound up not even using the Wellsprings.

If anyone wants to talk gelato off the board, let me know!

 

[macnicol]

I sell Gelato and have a 16 flavor display case. we buy the base and make it ourselves here and it sells very well. Its definitly worth doing but only if you have alot of foot traffic in your store.

 

[Integraoligist]

A couple of my distributers sell Geleto by the 3qt. tub. Was thinking of putting it in my Ice Cream case and seeing how well it stood and if it would sell in this one-horse town i’m in :lol:

 

[PIZZAMAGOO]

I opened with a twin twist Taylor soft serve machine and a single flavor Taylor slush machine. Both of these machines were nothing but trouble from day one, after about 5 or 6 months of struggling with them and numerous service calls, I asked Taylor to take back these “lemons”. Taylor refused and basically called me a liar to my face saying that I was making it all up just because I wasn’t selling enough product! I will never buy another Taylor machine as long as I live! I have since bought a batch freezer machine and I make my own gourmet hard ice cream and Italian ice, they both are doing awesome!!!

 

[ByTheSlice]

Integraoligist:

A couple of my distributers sell Geleto by the 3qt. tub. Was thinking of putting it in my Ice Cream case and seeing how well it stood and if it would sell in this one-horse town i’m in :lol:

Integraoligist,
Care to name the distributors?

 

[royster13]

Where does one learn to make their own ice cream and Italian ice?..Is their a “Think Tank” for ice cream folks?..

 

[PIZZAMAGOO]

Hey Royster13,
I got my freezer from Emery Thompson Freezers, they are the inventor of batch freezing ice cream. His site has tons of info and he does online classes every two months or so. I also got a couple books from a guy named Malcolm Stogo and you can find him online as well at … www.icecreamuniversity.com i think? He does seminars too. It really is pretty easy though. I picked the Emery Thompson freezer because it has so much control over the rpm’s of the machine so that you can pretty much make anything you want in it!!! Good luck!

 

[JaronAC]

That’s a good question, Royster! Maybe PMQ needs to add a forum! We actually got tired of using pregel’s pastes and just started playing in the kitchen. Next thing you know we were producing some amazing product.

 

[Integraoligist]

ByTheSlice:

Integraoligist:

A couple of my distributers sell Geleto by the 3qt. tub. Was thinking of putting it in my Ice Cream case and seeing how well it stood and if it would sell in this one-horse town i’m in :lol:

Integraoligist,
Care to name the distributors?

sure, around here GFS and Roma carry 3 or 4 flavors… they have a great flavor but they dont have that “fresh made” flavor that other geletos have. I still like these better then regular ice cream though.