A piece of advice regarding Milkshake/ Soft ice cream start up

[mike20]

Hey,

I have been saving for a while now and doing a lot of research with regards to looking at my own Milkshake store, I have a couple of questions if that’s ok.

Firstly, the logistical side of things is fine with me, my current day job has taught me a lot on that side, what I would like to know is more so about creating the perfect milkshake.

You know that you can go to 2 different milkshake stores and get 2 completely different tastes (one that’s ‘ok’ while another blows you away).

My question is, what makes this difference? Is it more so in the chocolate bars, sweets etc. used or is it more so in the ice cream used?

I went to a local, very busy, store and noticed that all the do is add liquid ice cream, some milk and then the chocolate bars/ sweets together – what makes these so good?

Finally, any other bits I should seriously bare in mind early on?

Thanks for any help in advance!
Looking forward to being a contributor myself to the forum.

Mike

 

[Chris Ashdown]

Why note just tell them how great it is and how do they make them as its so different, don't say why you are interested, fair bet they will talk you through the whole process

 

[myfairworld]

Well the ice cream is going to make a huge difference. There's ice cream and ice cream and then there is ice cream. Some ice cream - usually very cheap ice cream but not always - is little more than a very sweet (and what the sweetness is coming from sweeteners, white sugar, a sugar with a more complex taste is also going to make a difference) & cold flavour, add this to milk and nothing very exciting is going to happen.

The milk is also going to make a difference and not just full cream, semi-skimmed or skimmed but how it is produced such as what the cows were fed on.

Then if you are adding chocolate or sweets (yuck!) the quality and type of chocolate will make a difference to the eventual flavour. Sweets are, of course, little more than sugar and flavour but there are still differences in what the flavour is created from. Even a simple vanilla milk shake (my favourite) can be affected by the type of vanilla flavouring used - some vanilla flavourings could be completely artificial, others will have a more direct link to a vanilla pod.

As you've probably noticed I like Milk Shakes - or at least some Milk Shakes - but I mostly tend to avoid them as in your average cafe they are made from a prepared powder or a sort of cordial mixed with milk + a squirt of very low quality ice cream if you are lucky.

Which market are you aiming at? If you are going high quality I'd be the first in the queue and I'd be prepared to pay for that quality. A different section of the market wants a hugely sweet, brightly coloured liquid as cheaply as possible and no questions asked about what went into it.

 

[Mitch3473]

Not really my thing but unless I'm missing something, surely market research is the way forward. Make up dozens of different milk shakes using various recipes, noting recipes and costs etc etc and try them out on a wide range of friends and family, possibly take some on the high street when you've whittled the amount of shakes down

 

[Swisaw]

You are in milkshake business but not expert on milkshake taste!!!!