Casey Scott playing with a liquid-nitrogen-frozen rose.

Click here to see the full segment.

Sub Zero Ice Cream is eager to introduce Simi Valley to its thrilling cryogenic ice cream, which uses molecular gastronomy to freeze individual portions of ice cream before the customers’ eyes. Unlike regular scoop shops that pre-freeze ice cream and store cartons to serve at the customers’ request, Sub Zero Ice Cream allows customers to customize their ice cream from base to flavors, and mix-ins to texture. That means customers can order soft-frozen mocha custard with English toffee and almond mix-ins, or order a crunchy raspberry yogurt with mixed berries and chocolate flakes swirled in. With 8 bases, 40 flavors, and 35 mix-ins the flavor possibilities are virtually endless!

Owner Rob West, Sub Zero’s newest franchisee, looks forward to opening the first Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt creamery in California, as well as developing many more locations throughout Southern California. “It is totally cool to walk in and see billowing fog rolling off the counter as designer ice cream is being made with the freshest of ingredients and cryogenically frozen,” West says. He goes on to explain, “You see, the air we breathe is 78 percent nitrogen, and in its liquid form nitrogen is very cold and terrific for making ice cream. We have a ground breaking process that makes an incredibly smooth product.”

John Reid, West’s Director of Franchise Development, says, “Sub Zero Ice Cream provides an affordable treat with a little bit of a show, blasting the ice cream with liquid nitrogen and freezing it right before the customers’ eyes! Every portion is 100% customizable and can be tailored to specific tastes, diets, or allergies so that even those who normally cannot frequent ice cream shops due to dietary restrictions can finally get a chance to go out for ice cream.”

West and Reid also offer catering, bringing their transportable inventory and cryogenics on-site to bring the exciting show of fog and instantly-frozen ice cream to any event.

Simi Valley’s Sub Zero Ice Cream also offers educational school assemblies to teach students of all ages about the fun nature of chemistry, the properties of nitrogen, the atmosphere, and its application to the world around us.

Founded in 2004 by chemist Jerry Hancock, Sub Zero Ice Cream recently partnered with franchising leader, Five Star Franchising, to reimagine and expand the existing brand. Sub Zero currently has 14 active locations in Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Washington, and has ten additional stores in various stages of build out, including expansion to Sarasota, Florida later this year.

SPRINGVILLE, UT– Within one year of partnering with Five Star Franchising, Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt has placed at number 365 for Entrepreneur’s 2012 Franchise 500.

“Sub Zero has seen outstanding growth over this past year, and this award is evidence of that,” says Scott Abbott, CEO of Five Star Franchising.

After partnering with Five Star Franchising, Sub Zero Ice Cream locations have almost doubled, and there is talk of more stores opening in the eastern United States.

“As America’s number one dessert,” says Abbott, “ice cream will always be in demand. And with the ability to make a customizable treat, Sub Zero separates itself from the competition, making it a truly unique product.”

Combining his chemistry background with a desire to give customers unlimited options, in 2004 Jerry Hancock created a unique flash freezing process to create to order ice cream that customers can customize. Customers choose not only what flavors and mix-ins they want, but also what kind of milk their ice cream is made from (custard, premium, yogurt, rice and soy) and how frozen it is.

Article originally posted on Franchising.com.

Sub Zero Ice Cream was voted the #1 favorite Ice Cream location for Federal Way. Jack Walsh opened his Sub Zero Ice Cream location on October 6, 2011 and in less than six months his store has risen to the top of Federal Way’s prestigious list. Congratulations to Jack and his team!

To read more about the awards ceremony, click here.

Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt catering manager Kit Merkley prepares ice cream by using liquid nitrogen.

Surprise Stadium is the spring training stadium for the Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers.  Sub Zero Ice Cream was recently recognized on yourwestvalley.com as one of the favorite treat stops for fans that have come to see their teams play in the preseason.

According to the article, fans travel in to Arizona from both Texas and Kansas City. In addition to the hot dogs, hamburgers, bratwursts and fries, visitors are welcomed with less traditional culinary delights such as pulled pork, fish tacos, and ice cream frozen with liquid nitrogen.

Regarding Sub Zero Ice Cream, the article stated:

[Marketing supervisor Melissa] Melton said another hit at the stadium has been Sub Zero Ice Cream & Yogurt. Fans can watch their ice cream being made with liquid nitrogen in 30 seconds right before their eyes.

Kit Merkley, a catering manager for Sub Zero, said baseball fans have lined up to get the ice cream.

“It’s new and different, and that’s why I think people like it so much,” Merkley said.

Read the full article here.

The theme? What better topic than the Flavor of Success?

Keynote speaker Michael Swenson discussed the principles covered in his book Boom Start: Principles of Entrepreneurial Marketing–principles that Sub Zero is excited to pursue. If you’re a small business owner, here are some of the notes we took. Hopefully they’ll be as helpful to you as they were for us!

Keynote speaker Michael Swenson

Swenson spoke about the need for small businesses to create what he calls “a love fest” by giving customers a chance to do marketing for you through events. According to him, it is better to find creative ways to market rather than spend as much money as large corporations.  Another vital step for small businesses to take is to sharpen their angle to make sure they offer something that isn’t a dime a dozen. In so doing, benefits need to be easy to demonstrate, not just describe. You must show the customer you can deliver on what you claim and blow away expectations. You will build both customer loyalty and clientele by delivering superior value, be it a product, a service, and/or an experience. Perhaps our favorite quote from his speech is, “Small businesses can’t afford to buy success, they must earn it through creative, low cost tactics.”

In addition to Michael Swenson’s much welcomed wisdom, Five Star Franchising’s executive team covered topics as varied as Fundraising, Social Media, and Employee Training.

That’s not to say the whole conference focused on the nuts and bolts of operating a franchise. In addition to catering the meals, Thanksgiving Point also orchestrated the entertainment, including a hands on cooking class, a GPS scavenger hunt, and a group dinner that made all the foodies swoon.

Jerry Hancock, founder and owner of Sub Zero Ice Cream, demonstrates how liquid nitrogen creates higher pressure inside a water bottle, causing the water to shoot out into the audience of eighth grade students at Timberline Middle School. Photo by Karissa Neely

by Karissa Neely – Daily Herald Correspondent

The audience of eighth-grade students expected to get rather wet in the Timberline Middle School auditorium, but even with water shooting out and up and over, it missed them — mostly.

Timberline eighth-grade science classes were treated to some hands-on science by founder and owner of Sub Zero Ice Cream Jerry Hancock. And even when they didn’t want to be hands on, he encouraged them to anyway.

Sub Zero Ice Cream is a store steeped in chemistry, and rightly so, since Hancock graduated from college with a degree in chemistry. Hancock came up with the idea that he could make ice cream even creamier by instantly freezing the cream and flavors with liquid nitrogen. And with the success of his ever-growing franchise, started in one little store in Orem, and branching across Utah and the West, many would agree.

What makes his ice cream different from any other ice cream store? One word, he’ll say: customization. His ice cream is fully customizable from the very beginning.

“Science is about observing things,” Hancock taught the Timberline students. “And in business, if you’re looking for a new product, then you find out what people like, and you do it better. Or you find out what they don’t like and solve that problem. That’s where we come in, with customization.”

He said in other ice cream stores, you can add flavors or toppings, but you have to pick from a base set of ice cream flavors they have there. In his stores, you start with the cream. You can choose how much fat content you want in it, you can choose what texture it has, you can choose to start with yogurt instead, you can even choose a non-dairy cream. And then you build from there. You create your custom flavor from the very beginning, and then it is frozen into ice cream as you watch.

Why is that better? His explanation had to do with water.

He explained to the classes that as the ice cream freezes the water molecules bond. As the water freezes, the ice crystals grow and expand. But the faster the ice cream freezes, the smaller those water molecules grow, and the creamier the taste.

“When you freeze it almost instantaneously, you actually create more water crystals but they are much smaller, so the ice cream is so much more creamy,” Hancock said.

Essential to this process is the liquid nitrogen. Many of the students confused liquid nitrogen with dry ice. They are two completely different substances, and Hancock proved it to them, by allowing them to touch it. He explained that they are able to put their hands in the bowl he held, because the nitrogen is so cold, sitting at minus 321 degrees Fahrenheit, but still a liquid, so it formed a vapor barrier between their hands and the actual liquid.

“Dry ice is not nitrogen. Dry ice is not a liquid, it is solid, and because it is solid, it does not create a vapor barrier. That’s why you will be hurt if you touch it,” Hancock said, as he poured some of the liquid nitrogen out onto the carpet floor.

The nitrogen sloshed around Hancock’s bowl like water. It even sounded like water as it splashed onto the ground. But as one girl said, “The carpet! It’s not even wet!”

He even tossed some out into the audience. And after screaming and ducking, the students laughed in amazement that there was nothing on them, except for the feeling of cold.

“That’s awesome,” one boy yelled out after ducking.

Hancock also demonstrated the pressure qualities of nitrogen, by submerging a blown-up balloon into the bowl. The drastic temperature drop made the balloon suck into itself like it was being vacuumed out. Yet as he held it up to show the students, it immediately started expanding again, to full size, all on its own, as the balloon warmed back up.

“This is the relationship between pressure, volume and temperature,” he said.

Of course, the students’ very favorite demonstration was when he turned a regular water bottle into a rocket with just the addition of the nitrogen. The drop in temperature made the water expand, sending the bottle careening off, snaking into the air.

“Can you do that again?” came a shout. And Hancock did, multiple times.

Finally he plugged the water bottle so the water could not escape when the nitrogen was added. Astute budding scientists can guess what happened next. The bottle exploded in a spray of water and plastic, to a similar spray of rousing cheers.

When Hancock finally got to the point of making ice cream right there, the students could not stay seated, they were so fascinated, and probably a bit hungry. But they all got a sample.

“This is fun stuff of science education,” Hancock said after the students filed out with mouthy spoonfuls of fresh ice cream. “I plan to expand our program and go to more schools throughout the state. Our presentation can be targeted to any grade, from first grade on up. That tie we have with education is so unique — otherwise, we’re just another ice cream shop.”

Originally posted at http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/alpine/ice-cream-science-comes-to-timberline/article_be197579-a563-52df-a991-873fa3575067.html

Where: Sub Zero Ice Cream, 1774 N University Parkway, Provo

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen, Devynne, my uncle Spencer

Number of Visits: 2

What We Ordered: Various flavor combinations…I got mint ice cream (custard cream) with Junior Mints. Another time I ordered mine with soy milk instead.

What It Cost: Since my uncle paid, I don’t remember the exact total, but it was about $4 a person

What We Thought:

Okay, it’s time to come clean. I’m a total science nerd. I can actually claim to have made liquid nitrogen myself (on more than one occasion)…and it is awesome. Does it make the best tasting ice cream with the best consistency and texture? Nah. But it is the most fun way to make ice cream? Absolutely.

Sub Zero makes the whole “going out for ice cream” experience more entertaining by instantly freezing the various creams and flavorings right in front of you with a fun cloud of smoke. I don’t know how they do it all the time without freezing their hands off, but it’s a blast to watch.

Like any good ice cream place, they have a gazillion flavors that take you 20 minutes to decide between. They also have a gazillion different mix-ins for you to choose from (1st one free, can pay for additional), so plan on spending at least 40 minutes there if you’re super indecisive like me…You ALSO can choose the fat content of your ice cream, ranging from premium (14% milk fat) to skim, soy, or rice milk. I’ve tried both ends of the spectrum — just remember there is a reason normal ice cream has fat. It tastes good (and creamy and wonderful and delicious). But the soy kind wasn’t too bad either. If you’re vegan, then this is a great place to check out for a sweet treat!

What You Should Do: Go for the experience. It doesn’t taste like normal ice cream would of course, but it’s still good. Plus, if you (or your date) have never seen ice cream made this way, you’re missing out! Go science!

Originally posted at http://www.eatbyu.com/2012/02/sub-zero-ice-cream.html.