Soft serve ice cream: gravity and air pump explained

THE POWER OF PRESSURIZED SOFT SERVE MACHINES
Posted by Slices Concession on Nov 02, 2017

hands with gloves pouring coconut vanilla soft serve ice cream out of frozen yogurt machine with slices concession logo on it

Pressurized machines have the capacity for high volume sales & superior texture and structure for your frozen yogurt or soft serve ice cream. In this post we explain the science behind how this is done & compare pump (pressurized) machines to gravity fed machines.

OVERRUN & HOW IT AFFECTS YOUR PRODUCT
When you freeze the product mix in the machine, air is added into the mix to expand the final product and produce more dessert with less materials. The percentage of the air added to expand the final product is called overrun.

Overrun affects your profitability in the way that it raises smoothness of texture, consistency & taste of the product. Something very critical to the success of Apple as noted by Steve Jobs is the design of their products, packaging, website, & brand. Humans all are very conscious of the design of all things, aesthetics matter!

EXAMPLES OF SOFT SERVE OVERRUN
This is a good example of how a lack of sufficient overrun in the product can cause the product to melt at uneven rates throughout the cone & lose its structure.

melting vanilla gelato cone
Though this product has the consistency of the ice crystals throughout the soft serve, it has no structure and therefore it looks messy & unappealing to eat to customers.

vanilla and chocolate double swirl flavored soft serve ice cream cone with no shape or structure and just drooping on the side

FROZEN DESSERT PERFECTION!
When the air is mixed well into the product while it freezes, the end result is a beautifully creamy and consistent soft serve ice cream cone. It maintains its structure and consistency throughout the entire product no matter how low the machine is running.

tall serving of vanilla soft serve on a waffer cone that has perfect structure & consistency

To any business owner wanting to produce premium quality soft serve ice cream, we always recommend a pressurized machine because it can yield 65% or more overrun in your product compared to the small maximum amount of 35% overrun in a gravity fed machine.

Read more in depth information in our article: What Is Overrun & Why Does It Matter When Making Product?

THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GRAVITY & PUMP FED
The big difference in the mechanics between gravity fed & pump fed machines is that gravity fed machines use air tubes & pressurized machines use pump. Knowing this, gravity fed machines cannot produce the volume of product and overrun of a pressurized machine.

TASTE & TEXTURE
Gravity fed machines give the final product a more intense taste while pressurized machines ‘soften’ the taste of the product to give it a subtler taste which makes it much more palatable.

SALES VOLUME
Projected sales volume can be influenced by the type of venue you own as well as the location of your business. If you project higher sales volume, we recommend a pressurized pump machine because it produces 20-30% more finished product mix. If you are a large business this will save you money in the long term.

Source : https://slicesconcession.com/blogs/frozen-dessert-industry-and-machine-articles/the-power-of-pressurized-soft-serve-machines
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