The Best Ways to Eat Ice Cream Today

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Ever since its invention in the early 1900s, ice cream has proven to be a widely popular frozen treat across the United States, and it’s known for coming in a wide variety of flavors. Not only that, but different containers can be used for ice cream too, may they be classic waffle cones or dessert cups with spoons to act as convenient containers. Such containers are common for related treats like gelato and frozen custard too, and these frozen desserts call for some utensils to eat just right. An ice cream parlor can easily stock up on those containers for its patrons, and a good shop will also have a variety of ice cream flavors and ice cream makers, too. What is there to know about the contemporary market for ice cream and the containers for such desserts?

Ice Cream Today

All kinds of surveys and studies are done to see what foods and drinks Americans like to consume, and why, and plenty of studies show that ice cream and related desserts are as popular as ever. The NDP Group, for example, conducted a study and found that in any two-week period of the year, nearly 40% of all Americans will eat ice cream. That’s over 100 million people savoring these sweet treats, and nearly 90% of American households (according to other data) indulge regularly in frozen desserts like these. This works out to the average American consuming ice cream around 28.5 times per year, and ice cream is often most popular during the summer months. June, in particular, is the most popular month for producing ice cream, when the hot weather is just getting started. This adds up fast: some 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream are produced every year in the United States, and this means that around 9% of all milk produced at dairy farms goes toward ice cream production. Meanwhile, what kind of supplies and containers are best for ice cream? It’s not finger food, after all.

How to Eat It

There’s not necessarily a “wrong” way to eat ice cream, but some Americans may have some preferences on how they eat their ice cream. Some containers are edible: waffle cones. These are a classic for ice cream, and not only do they conjure classic images of ice cream but they’re a crunchy, mildly sweet contrast to ice cream once the ice cream itself is eaten. These cones are plenty popular, but the issue is that they let ice cream drip and melt everywhere, and scoops might even fall off. Some ice cream shop patrons won’t like that at all, and they’d rather have different containers. It may also be noted that ice cream cones don’t make for good leftovers containers in a fridge or freezer.

Some ice cream patrons would rather have paper cups and plastic spoons for their treats, and these containers aren’t edible, but they can prevent messes and spills just fine. They’re also great leftovers containers at home, and they allow an eater to mix flavors and condiments as they like, which some patrons might like. Related desserts like gelato and frozen custard are usually served with their own cups and spoons too, or small plastic bowls. They aren’t usually served on cones, though some creative consumers may do that anyway.

Stocking Up the Store

A good ice cream parlor will have a wide variety of ice cream and gelato flavors, and enough containers to serve them all. A new store can set up business relations with wholesale suppliers in their area, and they can receive shipments of hundreds of plastic straws, foam cups, paper cups, waffle cones, and plastic spoons, among other things. Patrons can eat from waffle cones or paper cups as they like. A good ice cream parlor will also have enough freezer space for the desserts and their ingredients, not to mention they will have enough ice cream makers to keep up with demand. A store may get more mixers as its consumer base grows, and those machines can be taken apart and washed after every work day. Employees can rinse them out, then disassemble them and wash all parts with soapy water. When dry, the parts may be assembled for another work day.

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Francis Pitt

Francis Pitt has made a name for himself in farm-to-table organics, working at restaurants in Portland, Seattle and Burlington, Vermont. While he has a taste for the extreme, most of his restaurant’s top sellers are much more down-to-earth, regularly featuring mushrooms gathered from the slopes of the Cascades, and fresh wild-caught seafood from the Oregon coast. Inspired by trends in Portland, his latest restaurant offers the ultimate chef’s table: dinner begins in the morning at his island collective farm, and 4 lucky guests every week get to follow the food, literally, from the field to the plate! Francis is a firm believer that you are what you eat — do you really want to be a chemistry set?