Brand Ice Cream

• What is the difference between “industrially” and “artisanally” produced ice cream?
• What ice cream flavours are most favoured by Germans?
• What are the different merchandising areas for ice cream?
• Serving ice cream – how do you do it properly?
• How do I store ice cream properly?
• Air in ice cream – what is it good for?

Industrially manufactured ice cream is machine-produced in large quantities for the trading sector. Consumers can buy industrially produced ice cream from outlets such as supermarkets, restaurants, or kiosks. Artisanally produced ice cream is understood to mean ice cream produced by traditional handcraft, which consumers can buy in ice cream parlours, for example.

Vanilla, chocolate, nut, and stracciatella have long been the undisputed favourites among German ice cream fans – followed by cherry and strawberry. The reason for this might lie in the fact that these flavours are the most easily combined, since they simply go together well with so many other things. Nevertheless, the average ice cream fan in Germany is not a bore: he or she is indeed quite keen to experiment. They very much like trying out new ice cream flavours and even test very exotic or unusual flavours at least once. So far, however, the latter have failed to knock the classics from their top rankings.

Ice cream is divided into four merchandising areas:

1. impulse ice cream (small packs) – these are individually packaged ice cream on a stick, ice cream cones, ice cream sandwiches, ice cream bars, small tubs, ice chocolates, and other special forms.
2. multipacks – these are units of sale containing several single-variety or mixed-variety impulse ice cream products.
3. household packs – these are the classic ice cream tubs/boxes as of 300 ml upwards which are stored in the home freezer and are served using a spoon or ice cream scoop.
4. bulk consumer range – this covers bulk packs for the catering trade or ice cream parlours, pre-portioned ice cream desserts/convenience products, and other ice cream products such as ice cream bombs, ice cream platters, and ice cream buffets.

Ice cream develops its full taste when taken out of the freezer 5 to 10 minutes before serving and eating. This also makes scooping out the ice cream easier – no more bent spoons! Once opened, the pack should be immediately returned to the freezer after scooping out the desired portion.

There are several ways of dividing ice cream into portions. A large, robust knife is suitable for cutting ice cream slices. This works even better if the knife has been dipped in hot water just beforehand. An ice cream scoop enables the server to dish out well-formed and consistently-sized scoops of ice cream. Various models are available in household articles stores and in well-stocked supermarkets.

Anyone who has ever closely observed professionals scooping ice cream knows they do not drill holes into the ice cream. Instead, they pull the scoop gently in longish lines over the surface of the ice cream. This makes it much easier for them to serve scoops of consistently-sized ice cream. If possible, the ice cream should be scooped evenly from the whole surface of the pack – not just from the middle of the pack – to avoid untidy edges building up around the inside.

It all starts when you are doing your shopping, where you need to observe a whole set of important tips. The freezers one finds in retail stores have so-called stacking lines which mark out the filling limit. These are to be found on the inner sides of the freezers. To ensure an optimum storage temperature, the goods may not be stacked above this mark. All ice cream packs below this filling limit have been properly stored and sufficiently cooled.

It is advisable to put the ice cream into your shopping trolley at the end of your shopping trip so as to best keep the ice cream cold. Those who live near a supermarket can even transport the ice cream home without requiring a second “outer packaging”, since the residual coldness is sufficient in this case. But for those who have to travel longer distances, it is recommended they wrap the ice cream in a cooler carrybag or a cooler bag (available in almost every supermarket) or even simply newspaper before setting off.

The manufacture of ice cream involves whipping the liquid ice mass with air during the freezing process. This is done to prevent the formation of large ice crystals in the freezing phase. By contrast, if the ice mass were simply frozen without doing this, one would get a hard block of ice with the consistency of something like an ice cube. It is only by whipping air into the ice mass that one gets the creamy and light consistency that is typical of ice cream and which allows the ice cream to melt on the tongue so pleasantly.

The basic rule is: the smaller the ice crystals that form, the creamier is the ice cream. Everyone knows this method of whipping air into ice cream from their own kitchen practise: there would be no whipped cream without air being whipped into it, nor meringue without first beating up egg whites. Just think of the difference in taste between whipped cream and liquid cream or between raw egg white and beaten egg whites. The same goes for ice cream. Brand ice cream manufacturers produce ice cream in different creamy consistencies to satisfy consumers’ various taste preferences.