Whether you manage a family-owned creamery or a popular ice cream franchise, you probably know just how much revenue ice-cream alone gathers each year. That being said, it’s important to keep your indulgent treats cold and fresh in an ice cream freezer. However, if you’re new to the ice-cream making business, then you might get somewhat confused with all the different types of freezers available. Knowing the ice cream basics and differentiating the various types of freezers will surely help you when buying one.
As you probably know, ice cream is perishable, so you need to keep it at safe holding temperatures, otherwise it would subject to adverse changes in flavour and texture. Your freezer should always be below -30°C, so that the ice cream is always thoroughly frozen. If the freezer starts to defrost, you’ll see ice crystals forming around, which can ruin the experience for the customers.
If you’re using a display/open freezer, the ice cream should always be stored below the freezer line. This might shorten your freezer’s capacity, but your ice cream will be always tastier and more fresh. However, there’s a difference between producing ice cream, gelato, sorbet and frozen yogurt. So before you start looking for a freezer machine ice cream for sale, you should know the difference between the products.
- Ice Cream is served at colder temperatures, has a harder texture, and air is incorporated during the churning phase to keep it lighter;
- Gelato has a softer and silkier texture, much more dense due to slower churning phase, usually served at slightly warmer temperatures;
- Frozen Yogurt is made with milk instead of cream (lower fat content), has more tart in flavour, and it has active cultures that can help with digestive health;
- Sorbet is low in fat and calories, produced by blending and freezing fruit puree and sweetened water
Ice cream dipping cabinets and gelato cabinets are the two most common freezer options, but even they vary slightly. Proper gelato cabinets feature trays in a display case, whereas ice cream cabinets display ice cream in tubs. Due to the fact that gelato is served and stored at warmer temperature, the cabinets are especially designed to accommodate that.
If you serve gelato out of an ice cream cabinet, or vice versa, you’ll probably serve the product at the wrong consistency. Soon enough, you’ll get a bad reputation for serving rock-hard gelato and melted ice cream. For that reason, it’s best that you find a proper gelato or machine ice cream for sale and serve the products from their respective cabinets.
