Italian Ice
When you mention Italian ice, everyone you speak to will get a different picture of what it means in their mind. If you dive a little deeper and get specific, you will notice a huge variety of what people consider Italian ice. It can be a hard cup of ice, only to be scrapped with a wooden spoon, like I remember from my childhood. Or depending on their location, people from Philadelphia will probably imagine Philly water ice. Water ice has also been described as a specific type of Italian ice originating in Philadelphia, or a "variation on the more broadly-accepted Italian iceā. These are very different products, but the cool thing about our equipment is both are possible with various mixes. Any way you look at it Italian ice consists of fresh fruit, purees or food flavorings similar to sorbet. Italian ice is derived from the Granita, an icy coarse texture Italian ice. When serving Italian Ice, it is important to not be too cold as it will actually numb the taste receptors in your customer's mouth muting the fantastic fresh taste.Ā
Ingredients:Ā Fruit, sugar, lemon juice (to mute some of the sugar), stabilizer, water.
The commercial Italian ice machines available are batch freezers, some are more suited than others for this type of product. Below are the frozen dessert machines we recommend making this kind of product. These Italian ice batch freezers range from 1-liter batches up to 24 liters (5 gallons) buckets. Freshness is key to making good rich and smooth Italian ice.
