Ice cream is a big business in the United States. According to one report, in any given two-week period, over 40% of Americans will eat frozen treats at least once. On average, American adults will eat ice cream over 28 times each year.
Consumers enjoy all sorts of frozen treats including frozen yogurt, gelatoes, soft serve, and hard serve. The number of frozen treat shops have steadily grown as the love of ice cream has also grown. There are a wide range of frozen treat options know, which include shops that make custom flavors, others that allow customers to create their own sundaes from dozens of flavors and topping options, and even now rolled ice cream.
Over 90% of households regularly eat ice cream or frozen yogurt. Due to this high level of consumption, there are over 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream and similar frozen treats produced in the United States alone each year.
The different types of ice cream are differentiated by the amount of air left in them through the churning process, as well as the amount of cream used in the production. This creates the difference between soft ice cream, hard ice cream, and gelatoes. Soft serve ice cream is processed in such a way that allows a lot of air to be in the ice cream, which is what creates the soft smooth texture.
Hard ice cream allows for a lot less air, which makes it harder, but also allows for the inclusion of candies and sauces making the rich variety of flavors. Hard ice cream is also made ahead and allowed to freeze once produced. Soft serve is produced as it is served, which also adds to its light texture.
Clearly, with a massive frozen industry such as this one, the demand for complimentary products and supplies such as cups, bowls, and spoons. There are different size and shape bowls tailored to different types of frozen treats. For example, ice cream shops that allow customers to create their own sundaes and pay by the ounce need standard shape bowls in different sizes to accommodate different sized treats.
Ice cream shops that sell a variety of different sundaes, banana boats, and ice cream inspired treats need bowls and cups tailored to the size and shape of the treat. Spoons are also a strong necessity for ice cream vendors. They can have specific colored spoons to fit their brand, but they may also need different length spoons depending on the depth of the dessert bowls. They may also want tasting spoons to offer small samples to interested customers.
