Copyright © Françoise Herrmann
Made to order ice cream in just 90 seconds? Yes, meet Smitten®! Ice cream Churned Just for you®, in a patented machine called Brr™ that uses liquid nitrogen to flash freeze all the organic, locally-sourced, farm-fresh ingredients, required for the tastiest treat.
Why liquid nitrogen? First, because liquid nitrogen freezes ice cream at -321 degrees F (77 Kelvins) and thus produces a much smaller ice crystal than regular freezing. In turn, the smaller ice crystal creates a much smoother texture for Smitten® ice cream. Secondly, liquid nitrogen freezing is a super fast "flash" process, which makes it possible to use the freshest possible ingredients, with no stabilizers, no preservatives, no binders, and no emulsifiers. In fact, Smitten® ice cream is churned so fast that it is made in front of you. None of Smitten® ice cream is ever stored. Shelf life is irrelevant.
Why liquid nitrogen? First, because liquid nitrogen freezes ice cream at -321 degrees F (77 Kelvins) and thus produces a much smaller ice crystal than regular freezing. In turn, the smaller ice crystal creates a much smoother texture for Smitten® ice cream. Secondly, liquid nitrogen freezing is a super fast "flash" process, which makes it possible to use the freshest possible ingredients, with no stabilizers, no preservatives, no binders, and no emulsifiers. In fact, Smitten® ice cream is churned so fast that it is made in front of you. None of Smitten® ice cream is ever stored. Shelf life is irrelevant.
Robyn Sue Fisher, the founder of Smitten® ice cream, prides herself in re-inventing old-fashioned recipes using high tech processes. After three years of prototyping in a basement, Fisher sold Smitten® ice cream, for almost a year, on a red wagon in the San Francisco Mission district, combining Mexico’s heladera tradition, with the acumen of a Stanford Business School graduate, field-testing her product. An experience that led her, in 2011, to open, the first off-the-street Smitten® ice cream shop, in the Hayes Valley district of San Francisco. The rest is history. To date, nine Smitten® ice cream shops in California are serving Brr™ churned ice cream in a fog of liquid nitrogen, in 60 seconds.
The Brr™ machine used for churning, together with the smart cryogenic liquid dosing and dispensing processes for making Smitten® ice cream so fast, are recited in the following three US utility patents:
- US2017360059 (A1) ― 2017-12-21 - Devices and methods for dosing
- US9433230 (B1) ― 2016-09-06 - Device and method for dosing cryogenic liquid
- US8857197 (B1) ― 2014-10-14 - Device and method for mixing viscous substances
Included below, the abstract for the patent application US2017360059, together with the patent Figure 2 of the Brr™ machine, and an image of the Brr™ machine prototype, operating with a battery pack on Fisher's red wagon, during her back-alley vending stint.
Systems and methods of producing a frozen food product include mixing ingredients with a liquefied gas, e.g. liquid nitrogen. The texture and quality of the food product may be determined by sensing temperature or viscosity, and controlling the rate at which the liquefied gas flows into the mixture, i.e. dosing. This functionality may be achieved using one or more scoops, the position of which may be controlled by actuators. The dosing may be controlled by a program that receives input from one or more sensors, and the program may be responsive to input of the type or amount of ingredients being mixed. In addition, the dosing may be controlled by a human being through a user interface, e.g. by pushing a 'dose' button. [Abstract US20170360059 Al]
References
Smitten.com
Shupack, J. (2018) Smitten® founder Robyn Sue Fisher is out to make the best ice cream in the world, balancing technology with old-fashioned ways. Silicon Valley Magazine, June 28, 2018.
1 comment:
Amazing!!! Thank u so much for posting.
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