# Flav-r-ice: hard freeze vs soft freeze **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 4, 2007, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644 "2007-06-04T03:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/1 "2007-06-04T03:07:04Z")
So I have an addiction to Flav-r-ice when it gets hot out. Remember those? About a foot’s worth of flavored ice goodness, snip off the top and enjoy. Being that they only cost about $1.50 for 24, I buy one pack for home and one for work. The problem is, the ones in the freezer at work tend to turn out as intended after freezing. When I bite into it, the ice is “soft” and kinda crumbles. This is opposed to the ones at home, which unfortunately have more of the consistency of an ice cube, really hard and not as much fun to eat. The question is, what could be the difference between the two freezers? Is one freezer just colder than the other? I have no thermometers that go that low to test this theory. Both packages start out the same way, when I buy them in the store they are unfrozen. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/2 "2007-06-04T03:18:18Z")
Oooh, there’s science here! 😉 [Popsicle freezing](http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/sci_update.cfm?DocID=183) > [@](#): > > We asked Douglas Goff, a professor of food science at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada. He says when a Popsicle freezes, it doesn’t just turn into a solid block of juice. The water comes out and freezes into a network of pure ice crystals. > > Goff: > Then what you have is a mixture of pure ice crystals with this very concentrated sugar juice, if you like, with the flavor and color in it that is surrounding the ice crystals, but not frozen. > > Commercially made Popsicles are frozen very fast, which keeps the ice crystals small, and the flavor and the color well-mixed. In a home freezer, though, there’s plenty of time for the ice crystals to grow. So your work freezer is probably colder than your home freezer. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/3 "2007-06-04T03:23:44Z")
Ha! I used to work in the food science building at U of G. It’s one of the most advanced food labs in the world. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/4 "2007-06-04T03:32:19Z")
So based on this, you should freeze them both at work, and then take one box home and put in your home freezer. ---
**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/5 "2007-06-04T03:44:15Z")
I just looked and my home freezer is set to a couple notches to the warm side from the “center”, whatever that is. I’ll try a few notches colder on the dial. Is that middle temperature supposed to mean something, like 31 deg F? If you turn the dial too far to warm does it go above freezing (surely not)? So what is that dial for anyway, to make flav-r-ice correctly? ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/6 "2007-06-04T03:58:21Z")
Pfft. Flav-r-ice. Otter Pops forever! I could go for some Alexander the Grape right now, actually… ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/7 "2007-06-04T04:31:35Z")
What type of freezer are you using at work? If it’s an ice cream freezer, or any type of a retail food freezer, it’s probably running at about -20 and has a lot more thermal mass (can recover from the door opening faster) then your home freezer. ---
**Author:** ![jmwatts](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jmwatts/32/17348_2.png) [@jmwatts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jmwatts)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/8 "2007-06-04T11:50:06Z")
Both are just regular consumer fridge/freezer combos. ---
**Author:** ![vetbridge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5e925/32.png) [@vetbridge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vetbridge)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/9 "2007-06-04T13:37:28Z")
[QUOTE=Baffle] It’s one of the most advanced food labs in the world. [/QUOTE] I can just see a bunch of wacky mad scientist types working on a peanut butter that doesn’t stick to the roof of your mouth, while back in a darker corner they are working on the highly awaited Tang update. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/10 "2007-06-04T13:53:07Z")
[QUOTE=jmwatts] Is that middle temperature supposed to mean something, like 31 deg F? If you turn the dial too far to warm does it go above freezing (surely not)? So what is that dial for anyway, to make flav-r-ice correctly? [/QUOTE] I’d assume center is around 0 deg F, that’s what I tend to hear as the “right” temperature for a home freezer. It needs to be well under the freezing point so that it can get things under that temperature quickly, and maintain quality over time. Being right below 32 F is a recipe for really horrible long term storage. Of course, you don’t really know what the temperature is unless you get a thermometer and check it. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/11 "2007-06-04T13:57:07Z")
[QUOTE=Baffle] Ha! I used to work in the food science building at U of G. It’s one of the most advanced food labs in the world. [/QUOTE] That helps. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2007, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/12 "2007-06-04T14:09:31Z")
[QUOTE=Philster] That helps. :rolleyes: [/QUOTE] Well, sure it does. It adds credibility to the cite. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2007, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flav-r-ice-hard-freeze-vs-soft-freeze/406644/13 "2007-06-20T09:57:04Z")
[QUOTE=vetbridge] I can just see a bunch of wacky mad scientist types working on a peanut butter that doesn’t stick to the roof of your mouth, while back in a darker corner they are working on the highly awaited Tang update. 😃 [/QUOTE] This is very, very accurate.