# What's the appeal of soft-serve ice cream? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718 "2005-05-13T18:52:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/21 "2005-05-14T06:35:13Z")
I prefer hard ice cream to soft serve, but I’m not averse to s-s once in a while. Its appeal is that you can add far more in the way of toppings and not need a fork to eat it. It’s basically a conveyance for hot fudge. Custard and fro-yo, on the other hand…echhhhhhhhh. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/22 "2005-05-14T13:15:23Z")
> [@Carnac the Magnificent!](#): > > …hand-dipped ice cream, the more butter fat, the better. Jeepers, when described like that, ice cream sounds revolting! I’m not a particulrly big ice cream fan, but soft serve is nice becuase it’s nice, and regular ice cream is nice because it’s nice. I don’t really think much beyond that. Food and me, we are strange bedfellows. What I want to know is what’s gelati? ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/23 "2005-05-14T14:45:30Z")
Culver’s says it’s frozen custard. It’s not. It’s soft serve. Sheridan’s (not my favorite) is frozen custard. ---
**Author:** ![want2know](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@want2know](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/want2know)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/24 "2005-05-14T19:04:46Z")
Personally, I love soft serve. I agree with some of the previous postings about soft serve’s “mouth feel”, but I think the appeal lies elsewhere. Anyone can buy ice cream, take it home and scoop it into a cone or bowl. You have to go _out_ for soft serve. I believe that’s a large part of the fascination with it. Black & Decker (I believe) just came out with a device into which you place regular ice cream, and it dispenses it as soft serve. It’s definitely not the same.And to the previous poster who described Carvel as “pedestrian”, let me just say that as one who grew up in the Northeast, on a hot summer day, Carvel Vanilla ROCKS! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![zweisamkeit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zweisamkeit/32/4360_2.png) [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/25 "2005-05-14T19:08:06Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > What I want to know is what’s gelati? Do you mean “gelato”? It’s pure heaven when made right. 🙂 > **[Lost In The Pasture? - Young's Jersey Dairy in Yellow Springs, OH](https://youngsdairy.com/404-redirect/)** > > You've reached a link that doesn't exist on the Young's Jersey Dairy website. > [@](#): > > Gelato is fresh Italian ice cream. It differs from traditional ice cream in ingredients, consistency and flavor. Milk based gelato contains one-third the fat when compared to ice cream and less sugar. The fruit based gelato, or sorbetto, has almost no fat at all, and no dairy ingredients. Young’s makes our gelato daily to maximize the intense flavor and unique texture. > > \ > > Gelato doesn’t have as much air as regular ice cream. That makes the flavors more intense. Gelato is less frozen than ice cream – we store and dip it at about 5 degrees above zero. Ice cream is stored at about 10 degrees below zero. It has less fat than regular ice cream, but tastes richer! It’s a miracle! I’ve had a pumpkin pie gelato that made me lick the styrofoam bowl I got it in. The best was the fresh pear sorbetto, though. My GOD, that was wonderful! ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/26 "2005-05-14T20:17:56Z")
Yeah, I’m really really into gelato and sorbet. I’ll take either over any other kind of ice cream. Tastier AND somewhat healthier–the best of both worlds. It’s a shame most gelato places tend to be so trendy, making them relatively expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/27 "2005-05-14T20:52:43Z")
McDonald’s soft serve does have enough butterfat to qualify as ice cream. > [@zweisamkeit](#): > > I’ve had a pumpkin pie gelato that made me lick the styrofoam bowl I got it in. It may have been foam, but not [Styrofoam](http://www.dow.com/styrofoam/na/what.htm). (Hey, this is the Straight Dope.) ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/28 "2005-05-14T20:53:53Z")
> [@CandidGamera](#): > > The texture. I like icecream, but I prefer softserve to traditional any day of the week. Ditto. Also, you can dip it in a peanut butter shell. To die for. **Gamera** , what does the top line of your sig mean? ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/29 "2005-05-14T20:54:59Z")
> [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Do you mean “gelato”? It’s pure heaven when made right. 🙂 Yes, yes, yes! Nothing like gelato, nothing in the world… _drool_ ---
**Author:** ![hazel-rah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/73ab20/32.png) [@hazel-rah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hazel-rah)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 8:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/30 "2005-05-15T08:47:10Z")
I used to love DQ soft serve, mainly for the texture, but it just doesn’t have the right feel anymore. It used to be airy and light, but now it’s too hard. Their fries suck now too, so I’ve written them off completely. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/31 "2005-05-15T09:19:48Z")
I had nver heard of “Sheridan’s” but they recently opened here and a woman at work has raved and raved. I went. It was ok, nothing special. My favorite story of soft ice was a friend from NY visiting me in Berlin. She went on the main pedestrian zone one hot morning at about 8 AM (She had odd hours. I got her a job dancing at a strip club, but that is a different story). She ordered a soft ice and the woman made her one in a cone. My friend handed her a 100 Mark bill for the 50 pfennig ice (think of someone handing you a $100 and asking for change at a soft ice cream stand at 8 AM!) My friend told me the woman looked at her like she was nuts, and opened the ice cream machine and poured it back in and threw away the cup. BTW, has anybody ever heard of a “Boston Shake”? In my hometown in Illinois, it was a chocolate shake, in a large cup, not quite filled to the top, and on the top, they made a hot fudge sundae, so you ate it first and then you had the shake below. Yes, there were a lot of fat asses in my hometown, but boy…those Boston Shakes were great…but I could only handle about one a month, tops. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@Dr.Kenneth\_Noisewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Kenneth_Noisewater)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 9:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/32 "2005-05-15T09:38:39Z")
It comes on a cone, it’s soft, and it’s generally cheaper (in restaurants). ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2005, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718/33 "2005-05-15T14:46:29Z")
Quoting Young’s Dairy: > [@zweisamkeit](#): > > Gelato is less frozen than ice cream – we store and dip it at about 5 degrees above zero. Ice cream is stored at about 10 degrees below zero. Since Young’s Dairy is based in the U.S., I assume that by “zero” they mean zero degrees Fahrenheit, not zero degrees Celsius (or zero Kelvin :eek: ). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-appeal-of-soft-serve-ice-cream/303718.md?page=1)