7 thoughts on “Is Artisan Ice Cream Dying?

  1. Hi Guys,
    Saw the video- very sad to see but like all things this mass production of ice cream will open doors for shops like yours and ours. “Made from scratch” I believe is the new organic and local. It’s hard to lie about something made from scratch-it’s the “Pukka Tukka” boys. People will taste the difference and come back for more!!!! It takes us two days to make our batches of 10 flavors and we are positioned smack dab in between a National chain ice cream store and on the other side a Starbucks. We have been offering Lavazza coffee and single poor over brewing now for 7 months-people taste the difference. Keep your heads up brothers and keep SPINNING!!!!! Big Love-Respect. Dave / The Gelato-ologist

  2. very well put together and argued. The points on ornate design and time on their hands really add a directors’ imprint.
    I wonder though, is there any chance that you are witnessing, at this show, a process of conventionalisation that only holds for as aspect of the overall industry?
    In other words, the show and its attendees are massifying, standardizing, industrialising, and more genuinely artisan producers are simply going somewhere else? (, as with organic).
    Now, if course this aspect is probably the majority. Nonetheless, I wonder are you witnessing the ageing of the show, rather than a process that accounts for the whole artisan sector?

  3. Bravo!
    This is so well done. I am passing it on to a lot of my German friends who are convinced that only the italian ice cream shops here in Germany make the real thing. The poisonous blue, pink and green colours don’t worry them. GERMANS!!!! The protectors of quality and of culture!

    Good luck Dave Gelato-ologist, too! There is no topping the TLC that is possible when things are NOT mass produced.

  4. Thanks for the comments! Ollie – Good points, and I wish that were the case, but sadly I don’t think so. Of course there are still people making ice cream the old fashioned way, but they are dwindling rapidly. Organics doesn’t seem to make much difference in terms of this story. There’s already one organic ice cream mix company, and some of the big companies are doing organic flavours, so it seems they have that covered. The reason their option is so attractive is that making ice cream from scratch is very hard, especially when it comes to sourcing ingredients and consistency of product. Organics makes it harder, since sourcing ingredients becomes even more difficult. By using a mix, you can solve everything with one stop – you can have organic ice cream with all your flavours sorted.

  5. Hi Kieran – cheers for the reply. I wasn’t referring to organic as different in terms of allowing for another artisan option, more as a thing which has had its own process of conventionalisation.
    Sorry if that wasn’t clear.
    (Many aspects of organic have of course been massified: it is easy to ‘buy an organic mix pack’ for many products I’m sure.)

  6. Hi, I stumbled upon your video today so this is a late contribution. The sad bit is how, as a consumer, do you recognise real artisan products made whith wholesome ingredients? Artisan products are a joy to discover: the combination of the personality of the artisan, where the product is being made,the quality of the ingredients and where they are sourced make them unique. This is about the art of making and this commands a premium. For consumers, does it or should it become an issue of quality over quantity (consumers purses are not expendable) or of developing our taste buds to appreciate the difference rather than seeking a standardised taste?

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