Hard Ice Cream vs Soft Serve Ice Cream

When setting up your ice cream store, you need to start deciding what concept you want for your store. If you are dead set on selling ice cream as opposed to frozen yogurt or Italian Ice, then you will have to decide on soft serve vs hard ice cream.

Here, we'll discuss the pros and cons of soft serve vs hard ice cream. Let's start off with hard ice cream. Hard pack ice cream is a classic treat that can include amazing toppings such as real fruit, candy pieces, cookies, and syrups. To make this kind of ice cream, you will need to start off with a liquid ice cream base with 10% - 16% butterfat. Your base is your canvas. The higher the butterfat concentration, the creamier and richer the ice cream. In addition, to increase your profit and create a less expensive product, make sure to increase your overrun in your product.

You'll then pour the product into your batch freezer. Keep in mind that if you decide on hard ice cream, batch freezers are typically more expensive. Popular brands include Carpigiani and Emery Thompson. Keep in mind quality and freeze time all depends on what batch freezer you will be using. You will also need to put your product into a blast freezer; you will need to add this into your cost too. Another price factor you will need to include is getting a display case for all your flavors. 

Moving onto soft serve... Ice cream soft serve originated in the 1930s. It's a huge commonality at fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, and restaurants. It's a great way to make a fast profit at said events. Soft serve is lower in milk fat than hard ice cream. It also has a lot less overrun than traditional hard ice cream. Soft serve can be paired with treats such as churros, M&M's, and even watermelon! Soft serve machines can be more affordable than batch freezers, but differ in the level of inclusions, and the option to store it in the freezer will differ greatly, as well.