Need custom solution for ice cream mixin's table...

[pezagent]

Hey gang,

I'm starting up an ice cream business in New Zealand (I'm an American, married to a Kiwi) and the resources here are rather scarce. For most of you in the States I'm sure you know of Marble Slab Creamery or Cold Rock Creamery, two franchises that were spin-offs of Amy's Ice Cream in Austin, Texas which was a spin-off of the store that started it all--Steve's. (Steve's is now Herell's). Of course, the ice cream industry wouldn't be anything without refrigeration so I'm glad you guys are around. ;)

If you're familiar with any of the scoop shops I've mentioned above, you'll know that one of the draws is "mixins" which are candies, fruits, nuts, etc, mixed into the ice cream on a "freezing table" which is basically a granite or marble slab kept just below freezing. Steve Herell started this back in 1976 when he used to freeze a marble slab and mix Oreo cookies into vanilla ice cream for his daughter (he is actually the reason we have that flavor). Customers saw this and wanted it. Viola--enter the mixin craze. Electrofreeze created a machine that would do this for Dairy Queen, and then the Blizzard brought the concept of mixins to the fast food industry. Took McDonald's a while to catch up.

So here's my problem. I need to figure out how to make a mixin' table. It's not really a big deal--the table is part of the counter (I think Marble Slab uses a seperate table I'm not sure) and one should be able to keep the granite or marble cold with a compact unit, like the ones used for Marine cold plates or something. (For a guy like me who knows nothing about refrigeration engineering, this is the best I could come up with.)

I've called a number of technicians in New Zealand that have told me it might cost upwards of NZ$10,000... which I think is way too much for such a simple solution. I managed to contact one of the Architectural firms that built a creamery and was told they just slipped a prefab unit into the counter that when turned on "iced up" the frozen slab.

If anyone has seen these slabs used for mixins and has an idea of what I should do or where I can find a manufacturer, please let me know. I would like to find a somewhat inexpensive solution, but of course if I have to pay I'll have to pay. Also if anyone knows anyone who's built something like this before that would be great.

Thanks in advance for everyone's help. :)

Johnny

[herefishy]

http://www.delfield.com/products/drop-in/images/dbdropin.pdf


If you look on pg. 2, you will see the flat table top looking device. I think this would be great. You may not want to mix the ice cream on the metal surface, but you could set your marble on top of it, and it would keep the marble frosty (You would probably want to start with the marble already at temp.


:)


If you were inclined to manufacture your own, I visualize the use of a Carbonated beverage cold plate. Are you familiar with post-mix or pre-mix soda systems? There exist the (typically aluminum) plates which sit in the bottom of an ice bin with tubing-like circuits cast into the metal. You could hook-up a condenser and expansion valve, pipe the various circuits in series. I would flip the critter (cold-plate evaporator) upside down, and use it to refrigerate my marble workspace. ;)

[pezagent]

hey herefishy thanks! That's just what I was looking for!

Hope everything is goin' well for ya in Austin... used to live there back in '96. My favorite line was always:

Don't like the weather? Wait a minute.

:)

[andqueiroz]

hi, could you please re-post this link? it seems its not working anymore...

thanks!