At Brooklyn ice-cream shop Ample Hills Creamery, the top-selling flavor is Salted Crack Caramel—a brain-blowing caramel confection packed with saltine crackers coated with butter, sugar and a thick layer of chocolate.
Co-founder Brian Smith wishes it wasn’t quite so popular.
Of all the flavors Mr. Smith produces for his Brooklyn mini-chain, Salted Crack Caramel is the most labor intensive, and the ingredients cost a bundle.
It’s almost as expensive to make as his Pistachio Squared ice cream. The cost of pistachios has gone through the roof. Mr. Smith suspects he loses money on every cone.
Happily, he says, customers choosing the less profitable varieties—anything with nuts or chocolate—are subsidized by patrons who prefer more profitable flavors like Sweet As Honey, a simple recipe featuring honeycomb candy.
Welcome to the world of ice-cream flavor economics, where cold, calculated planning and whimsy can produce inspired creations or freezer-case flops. How else to explain Mr. Smith’s apple-beer ice cream with Cheese Nips?
“There was one guy who was very upset when we didn’t make it again and kept asking for it,” recalls Mr. Smith. “But he was really the only one.”
A cone of Sweet as Honey on top of Cotton Candy at Ample Hills Creamery. ENLARGE
A cone of Sweet as Honey on top of Cotton Candy at Ample Hills Creamery. PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For New York ice-cream makers in tiny shops, flavor selection is an especially tricky task. Since launching her MilkMade Ice Cream subscription service in 2009, Diana Hardeman has created more than 200 adventurous flavors like Namaste Green Tea with White Chocolate Ganache and Chinatown Chocolate with Chinese spices.
But at the Tasting Room, her new Carroll Gardens storefront, there’s space in the case for just eight flavors, and local customers aren’t always impressed by her sophisticated tastes.
“There’s a lot of kids in the neighborhood,” she says. “They said, ‘Where’s the normal flavors?’ ”
Ms. Hardeman swore she would never make a vanilla ice cream. Finally she broke down. “Fine!” she said. “We’ll make a vanilla!”
The flavor name? “Fine Vanilla.”
At least vanilla ice cream is cheaper to produce. While Ms. Hardeman doesn’t vary the retail price of her different varieties, her cost per pint for flavor ingredients can range anywhere from 20 cents for vanilla to about $3 for a tiramisu, liqueur and marscapone cheese extravaganza.
Jazmin Green and Graham Yarrington pasteurize heavy cream at Ample Hills Creamery. ENLARGE
Jazmin Green and Graham Yarrington pasteurize heavy cream at Ample Hills Creamery. PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Greenpoint ice-cream maker Crista Freeman launched the grocery line she co-founded, Phin & Phebes, with just seven flavors—for good reason. The standard store freezer shelf is seven pints wide, she said.
Choosing those flavors wasn’t nearly as simple. Some of the homemade concoctions she created before launch proved too expensive to manufacture.
Her favorite, Peanut Butter Fluff, had to be discarded because no one would custom make the add-in confections she required in small enough batches.
And while she now offers her Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel pints in more than 700 stores in 30 states, she couldn’t initially afford to make chocolate-based flavors, which would have required a separate order of base in a larger quantity than needed.
New York’s ice-cream tastes generally mirror those of the nation, says Bill Mitchell, president of Baskin-Robbins U.S. and Canada.
The city’s top Baskin-Robbins flavors—Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pralines ’n Cream and Oreo Cookies ’n Cream—match the U.S. top five.
But further down the charts, local preferences creep in. The New York top 10 includes Pistachio Almond, for instance.
“We see pistachio-based products in New York doing very well,” says Mr. Mitchell.
New Yorkers also love Fat-Free Vanilla Frozen Yogurt: “There’s a population of health-conscious folks,” says Mr. Mitchell.
And city folks’ preference for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough? “You know,” says Mr. Mitchell, “I just think it’s a good flavor.”
While Baskin-Robbins famously offers 31 flavors, some of New York’s 451 franchises have space for just 24. Each must carry the chain’s most popular varieties, along with the flavor of the month and regional favorites.
Ample Hills Creamery ENLARGE
Ample Hills Creamery PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Beyond that, franchisees can choose any of the 55 to 70 varieties carried by the nearest Baskin-Robbins distribution center—which is why you’ll see, say, fruity flavors in Canarsie and classics in Cobble Hill.
One thing you won’t find at Baskin-Robbins: exotic tastes. “Trends are very important, but there are some we stay away from if it doesn’t suit the masses,” says Mr. Mitchell.
Ample Hills maintains a similar aesthetic for its small-batch creations. “We’re not making intellectual ice cream, there’s enough people doing that,” says Mr. Smith.
Indeed, many of his flavors sound like they were created by a sugar-crazed toddler, and are packed with enough candy to clog a kitchen sink. “Our goal is to just go borderline choking people,” he says.
He offers 24 flavors in his two stores; fewer than a dozen on his carts and kiosks. He’d love to offer more.
On a strictly utilitarian basis, one might do better with a smaller selection, Mr. Smith says. Not only would it cut labor and logistics, but “the line will get faster.”
Bourbon Street ice cream ENLARGE
Bourbon Street ice cream PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Still, he says, a bigger selection means more customers. To speed lines, he distributes menus to folks in the queue; he also employs up to eight scoopers behind the counter.
And perhaps you don’t want the line going too fast. A 20-minute bout of flavor gazing, after all, has its upside. When a customer can’t choose between Peppermint Pattie and Butter Pecan Brittle, says Mr. Smith, “Then you have to come back.”
พี่ๆคับใครก็ได้ช่วยผมแปลบทความนี้ที ผมไม่ไหวแล้ว เหลืออีก 2 วันต้องส่งอาจารย์
Co-founder Brian Smith wishes it wasn’t quite so popular.
Of all the flavors Mr. Smith produces for his Brooklyn mini-chain, Salted Crack Caramel is the most labor intensive, and the ingredients cost a bundle.
It’s almost as expensive to make as his Pistachio Squared ice cream. The cost of pistachios has gone through the roof. Mr. Smith suspects he loses money on every cone.
Happily, he says, customers choosing the less profitable varieties—anything with nuts or chocolate—are subsidized by patrons who prefer more profitable flavors like Sweet As Honey, a simple recipe featuring honeycomb candy.
Welcome to the world of ice-cream flavor economics, where cold, calculated planning and whimsy can produce inspired creations or freezer-case flops. How else to explain Mr. Smith’s apple-beer ice cream with Cheese Nips?
“There was one guy who was very upset when we didn’t make it again and kept asking for it,” recalls Mr. Smith. “But he was really the only one.”
A cone of Sweet as Honey on top of Cotton Candy at Ample Hills Creamery. ENLARGE
A cone of Sweet as Honey on top of Cotton Candy at Ample Hills Creamery. PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
For New York ice-cream makers in tiny shops, flavor selection is an especially tricky task. Since launching her MilkMade Ice Cream subscription service in 2009, Diana Hardeman has created more than 200 adventurous flavors like Namaste Green Tea with White Chocolate Ganache and Chinatown Chocolate with Chinese spices.
But at the Tasting Room, her new Carroll Gardens storefront, there’s space in the case for just eight flavors, and local customers aren’t always impressed by her sophisticated tastes.
“There’s a lot of kids in the neighborhood,” she says. “They said, ‘Where’s the normal flavors?’ ”
Ms. Hardeman swore she would never make a vanilla ice cream. Finally she broke down. “Fine!” she said. “We’ll make a vanilla!”
The flavor name? “Fine Vanilla.”
At least vanilla ice cream is cheaper to produce. While Ms. Hardeman doesn’t vary the retail price of her different varieties, her cost per pint for flavor ingredients can range anywhere from 20 cents for vanilla to about $3 for a tiramisu, liqueur and marscapone cheese extravaganza.
Jazmin Green and Graham Yarrington pasteurize heavy cream at Ample Hills Creamery. ENLARGE
Jazmin Green and Graham Yarrington pasteurize heavy cream at Ample Hills Creamery. PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Greenpoint ice-cream maker Crista Freeman launched the grocery line she co-founded, Phin & Phebes, with just seven flavors—for good reason. The standard store freezer shelf is seven pints wide, she said.
Choosing those flavors wasn’t nearly as simple. Some of the homemade concoctions she created before launch proved too expensive to manufacture.
Her favorite, Peanut Butter Fluff, had to be discarded because no one would custom make the add-in confections she required in small enough batches.
And while she now offers her Dark Chocolate Salty Caramel pints in more than 700 stores in 30 states, she couldn’t initially afford to make chocolate-based flavors, which would have required a separate order of base in a larger quantity than needed.
New York’s ice-cream tastes generally mirror those of the nation, says Bill Mitchell, president of Baskin-Robbins U.S. and Canada.
The city’s top Baskin-Robbins flavors—Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pralines ’n Cream and Oreo Cookies ’n Cream—match the U.S. top five.
But further down the charts, local preferences creep in. The New York top 10 includes Pistachio Almond, for instance.
“We see pistachio-based products in New York doing very well,” says Mr. Mitchell.
New Yorkers also love Fat-Free Vanilla Frozen Yogurt: “There’s a population of health-conscious folks,” says Mr. Mitchell.
And city folks’ preference for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough? “You know,” says Mr. Mitchell, “I just think it’s a good flavor.”
While Baskin-Robbins famously offers 31 flavors, some of New York’s 451 franchises have space for just 24. Each must carry the chain’s most popular varieties, along with the flavor of the month and regional favorites.
Ample Hills Creamery ENLARGE
Ample Hills Creamery PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Beyond that, franchisees can choose any of the 55 to 70 varieties carried by the nearest Baskin-Robbins distribution center—which is why you’ll see, say, fruity flavors in Canarsie and classics in Cobble Hill.
One thing you won’t find at Baskin-Robbins: exotic tastes. “Trends are very important, but there are some we stay away from if it doesn’t suit the masses,” says Mr. Mitchell.
Ample Hills maintains a similar aesthetic for its small-batch creations. “We’re not making intellectual ice cream, there’s enough people doing that,” says Mr. Smith.
Indeed, many of his flavors sound like they were created by a sugar-crazed toddler, and are packed with enough candy to clog a kitchen sink. “Our goal is to just go borderline choking people,” he says.
He offers 24 flavors in his two stores; fewer than a dozen on his carts and kiosks. He’d love to offer more.
On a strictly utilitarian basis, one might do better with a smaller selection, Mr. Smith says. Not only would it cut labor and logistics, but “the line will get faster.”
Bourbon Street ice cream ENLARGE
Bourbon Street ice cream PHOTO: JASON ANDREW FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Still, he says, a bigger selection means more customers. To speed lines, he distributes menus to folks in the queue; he also employs up to eight scoopers behind the counter.
And perhaps you don’t want the line going too fast. A 20-minute bout of flavor gazing, after all, has its upside. When a customer can’t choose between Peppermint Pattie and Butter Pecan Brittle, says Mr. Smith, “Then you have to come back.”