Summer Ice Cream Treats - Pictures 5 & 6

Summer Ice Cream - Pictures 5 & 6
Ice cream can be really colorful. In fact it's amazing how beautiful an ice cream display freezer can look when strongly colored ice creams are displayed next to each other. These pictures (all of the same display freezer) demonstrate my point beautifully.

Ice cream in hues of blue, peach, brown, white, yellow, cream, purple and red!

Summer Ice Cream Treats - Ice Cream Picture 2

Summer Ice Cream Picture 2
An ice cream cone with a single scoop of creamy ice cream and a chocolate flake. Looks tempting doesn't it?

Well, you would be wrong to be tempted!

Not because of the calories - far from it .... this ice cream cone is not even edible!
It's an ice cream display cone made of plastic and was part of a display in an ice cream shop window that I passed.

French Ice Cream Cones - Mansize!

Ice cream may be made differently in different countries but one thing that remains constant is the wonderful eye-catching displays in ice cream parlours and outdoor ice cream kiosks.

Here are some photographs from a trip to France where I was naturally drawn to French ice cream and was intrigued to learn how ice cream was made and promoted.



Read more about ice cream display cones

Are These Real Ice Cream Cones?

Continuing with the theme of interesting ice cream point of sale material, here is a photograph I took on a visit to Keswick in Cumbria England.

For those who are not familiar with Cumbria, it was home for many years to the wonderful children's story writer Beatrix Potter who gave us Peter Rabbit. So much did she love her Hill Top Farm that she purchased several thousand acres of additional farmland in the area and donated it to the National Trust to preserve unspoiled for future generations to enjoy.

Keswick is popular with visitors from all over the world and there is a very popular ice cream parlour in the town - Luchini's. Of Italian origin, the family set up business here many years ago, making their own ice cream and it's still produced locally today. The photograph was taken looking into their shop window. These life-size ice cream display cones looked so real .... the texture of the ice cream looked like it had just been scooped from the freezer. I watched as children passed by the window, then stopped and tugged on their parents' sleeves. Yet another example of successful point of sale display!

NOTE: It is interesting to see that the 3 ice creams used in the display were vanilla ice cream, chocolate ice cream and strawberry ice cream and ch These are the 3 most popular ice cream flavours in the world. Read more about the world's top 10 ice cream

Recipe For A Tempting Ice Cream Display

This ice cream display cone I came across was in the small town of Seahouses on the Northumberland coast of England.

It was located outside one of those old-fashioned English ice cream parlors that seem to be from a by-gone era.

What I loved about this ice cream point of sale material was its impact.

Lots of contrasting colour and texture - a waffle style cone, scoops of different ice creams plus a swirl of cream with melba and raspberry sauce infused.

I'm not sure I could ever eat such a rich ice cream combination in real life but it certainly caught the eye of passers-by!

The Art Of Ice Cream Advertising

Ice cream barely needs any marketing in truth because it will always be popular. However, the ice cream sales trade likes to leave nothing to chance and every ice cream vendor tries to make the most of their point of sale space.

For a number of years I have taken a keen interest in ice cream point of sale material. The most common 'icon' used has to be the vanilla ice cream cone and I have photographed many of these giant display cones in all sorts of locations. Over the next few ice cream blog posts I will share some of these with you so you can get to see just how popular they are and the variations on a theme that exist.

Here is a photograph taken in Zandvoort (Netherlands). I just love the dark chocolate sauce they've added to the vanilla ice cream!

Ice Cream - To Freeze Or Not To Freeze - ?

Think of ice cream and most people imagine a frozen food ... but you would be wrong, well partly wrong. Why?

• Homemade ice cream is at its best when freshly made. Having made lots of ice cream at home, tested and tasted it freshly batched and having also eaten it after it's been stored for a few days in the freezer, I can tell you there is simply no comparison - both in taste and texture.


• Gelato, the popular 'artisan' ice cream originating in Italy, is acknowledged to be enjoyed at its best on the day it is made, not after it's been frozen. Although gelato means frozen, it's a little ironic that gelato ice cream is known more for being a 'soft' ice cream. In most gelateria (ice cream parlors specializing in gelato), making gelato is done that day actually on the premises and although it's usually served from an ice cream freezer, it is a different kind of freezer to what you normally see for American style ice cream. It's a "forced air freezer" which prevents the gelato from becoming too frozen.
  
  There are lots of ice cream display freezers on the market today for commercial ice cream sales. Some are large with numerous ice cream pans and others can be split-level ice cream display units. There are also some small countertop ice cream display freezers as well as upright display freezers.
  
  Whether you enjoy making your own ice cream recipes or going out to an ice cream parlor, it's worth remembering that freshly made ice cream will always be the best. Ice cream freezers are great for minimal storage of ice cream such as in gelataria but if you make your own ice cream you should be aware of the do's and don'ts of storing ice cream properly.