On a warm day, my preference is hand-dipped ice cream, the more butter fat, the better. At home, gimme a bowl of Ben & Jerry’s, Breyers, or Haagen Daz, and I’m in heaven.
So what’s the appeal of its soft-serve cousin? Soft serve isn’t ice cream technically speaking and lacks the butter fat and flavors of real ice cream to give it lots of lingering flavor.
Nevertheless, I hear lots of people raving about soft-serve. What’s the scoop?
I don’t know about other people, but for me, soft serve ice cream is all about summer. Only the ice cream stands that opened up for the warm months had it. It’s all about happy memories.
For me, I think it’s more about the texture than the taste. I like both kinds of ice cream, and yeah soft-serve has a weaker flavour. But when I get a craving for soft ice cream, I’m not thinking “That would taste good” so much as I’m thinking about how soft and creamy it is, and how good it feels in my mouth.
I tend to opt out of soft-serve ice cream. I figure I’d rather hold out for a “better” ice cream, or just go without. The soft consistency is okay, but I just find it bland and not worth it.
The texture. I like icecream, but I prefer softserve to traditional any day of the week.
It’s also easier to eat. I prefer frozen custard, though (preferably sans body parts)–best of both worlds.
Soft serve comes to my door (Mr. Softee). It doesn’t compare to hand-dipped, taste-wise. I don’t keep a lot of ice cream in the house, but in the summer, when I hear that Og-awful jingle, sometimes I’m swayed to purchase a cone or a shake. And did I mention, it comes right to my door?
I have to go with the texture, too. It’s just… unique.
I haven’t had one in forever, though–when I indulge in ice cream nowadays, I go for the regular kind.
The appeal? Why the name frozen custard, of course. When I heard that name, I figured it would be just so delicious. When I found it was not some sort of semi-solid custard at all, I was so disappointed.
But really, I figure it is easier to dispense in an all you can eat place, and so they serve it instead of real ice cream. No real appeal, people just take it because it is the main desert available.
I rarely eat it, but when I have a sore throat, a McDonald’s soft serve is just the ticket.
Daniel
For me it depends on what kind of soft serve we’re talking about. The good stuff, like my hometown favorite Anderson’s Frozen Custard, is amazing. Part of it is nostalgia, the whole “it tastes like summer” thing, but even without that, good frozen custard, the kind that contains eggs, is defintely very good indeed. It’s so thick and creamy.
More pedestrian soft serve, like Carvel, sometimes strikes me as a good idea, but in general, yeah I agree with the OP and prefer ice cream.
BTW, I recently heard someone on a Food Channel show say soft serve “isn’t real ice cream” because it has a lower butter fat level. But a quick Googling suggests she might be wrong.
I think part of the appeal is the way soft serve is often dispenses–in a swirl. It brings out the kids in us.
In my hometown, there was an ice cream parlor that served soft-serve ice cream (and would even dip it in chocolate). But there was no indoor seating area. You drove up, parked and walked up to the window where you were served. The place was only open during the summer and because you never went inside, you could go there just in shorts (no shoes) and have ice cream. It was and is a tradition in town.
Yeah, this is exactly the way our local Dairy Queen was 25 years ago.
We just did a thread about this in GQ.
There are so many variations on soft serve that no one answer covers all. Some seem to have high enough fat contents to qualify as ice cream. But the vast majority have such a low fat level that it used to make them technically ice milk instead of ice cream. The new regulations take away the ice milk section but still define ice cream as having more than 10% milkfat. I can’t figure out from that where soft serve falls now, but it doesn’t appear to qualify as ice cream by that standard.
Okay, let’s not confuse soft-serve with frozen custard.
Two different things entirely.
Soft serve would be what you get at McDonald’s or Dairy Queen, pumped from a machine directly onto the cone.
Frozen custard is also pumped from a machine but not onto the cone. It’s typically harder than soft-serve but softer than hard-packed. It’s pumped into a bin then scouped out like hard-packed, found everywhere around Milwaukee.
Hampshire, you are confusing facts with reality. 
Sure, something dense but soft might be sold in Milwaukee, but here in MD, I see signs advertising frozen custard, and am disappointed to see it is neither custard, or the stuff they sell in your state, but instead soft serve. I have no idea what FC tastes like, or if I would like it, but I am annoyed I have never had the chance. :mad:
Depends. The one nearest me does it straight from the machine into the cone or a bowl. They also have one of those fancy machines that injects a flavor swirl.
Except the place I’m thinking of was an independent shop, locally owned. (Sorry for the nostalgia, by the way.)
Gosh, I’m sorry to hear that 
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