A Ben & Jerry’s meets Betty Crocker idea for the baking section
Boston — During the pandemic, Shelly Marshall wondered if powdered ice cream mix could be used as a shortcut for churning homemade batches while many Americans under lockdown started baking sourdough and banana bread.
She had opened a Caribbean-themed ice cream shop in New York a few years prior, where she was selling scoops of sea moss sorbet, soursop, and guava cheesecake. She laboriously heated and whisked milk and eggs on the stovetop to make ice cream for her kids while the virus raged throughout the city at home.
“I thought it was strange that no one had created a product similar to Duncan Hines that could be combined with milk in a bowl and stirred with a spoon or your hand,” she recalled. “I examined the contents of Häagen-Dazs. It has flavor, sugar, milk, eggs, and cream. Five components. How can I obtain these five ingredients in powder form and make ice cream that is dry and shelf-stable again? was my thought.
Ms. Marshall asked a friend in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for help with formulation as she started working on the idea. She had run her own packaged ice cream startup for five years, Kelly Williamson, whom she had met several years prior while enrolled in Pennsylvania State University’s ice cream short course.
However, Ms. Marshall posed a question: Would she be her Jerry’s Ben?
Ms. Williamson, who has worked in project management and marketing at a number of places, most recently at the online home goods retailer Wayfair, remarked, “I thought she was nuts.” “I agreed to conduct some free recipe testing just for fun, to satisfy that lingering craving for ice cream, when Shelly approached me with the idea of an ice cream mix.
And after that, it gained additional impetus. The idea of a powdered ice cream mix held a lot of promise, and she was receiving positive feedback from mentors. I decided to take action because I wasn’t content with my corporate career at the time. Together, let us tackle this.
Soon after, True Scoops made its debut. The product was first sold in pouches that needed to be prepared in an ice cream maker or blender. The two released a revised version earlier this year that comes in pint bottles and can be mixed with one cup of half-and-half using standard kitchen tools.
“You simply use an electric mixer to make the mix in a bowl; you can customize it by adding spices and mix-ins,” Ms. Williamson explained. “After that, you pour it back into the pint container and freeze it.” “The best thing about our product, in our opinion, is that it doesn’t require special tools to make.”
The ingredients of True Scoops’ ice cream mixes include sugar, organic gums, nonfat dry milk, organic tapioca syrup solids, and dehydrated sweet cream. Chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry are among the flavors.
“Every Ben & Jerry’s flavor has a base of chocolate, vanilla, or strawberry, and then chocolate-coated peanuts, raisins, or whatever else is added,” Ms. Marshall stated. “You can use our three bases to create any flavor you want, so get creative!” For this reason, the pint’s front says, “The name of this flavor is…” and allows you to write it in.
Two dry sauce mixes in the flavors of hot fudge and salted butterscotch are also offered by the startup. The growing demand for desserts with less or no sugar may be tapped into in future product development.
The products can be found in Central Market stores, a few specialty shops, and on maketruescoops.com and Amazon.com. While gaining traction online, the founders intend to roll out their product gradually in stores.
Since it’s a new category, we need to establish a stronger brand identity before we enter the store, Ms. Marshall stated. “We’re not going to sell any more granola bars. With whom will we be compared by others? Therefore, before we open a store, we are putting in the groundwork and conducting our first direct-to-consumer trial on Amazon. We need people to know that True Scoops and ice cream mix exist once we’re in the store.
In a grocery store, True Scoops can be stocked in various sections next to cartons, ice cream toppings, and cones.
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“Until we test in the store, we won’t know,” she remarked. Because we’ll be testing prices and placement throughout the store, the first two years of our retail career will be extremely important to us. Anywhere but the freezer is a possible place to merchandise us.
According to Ms. Williamson, the uniqueness of the product—a Betty Crocker meets Ben & Jerry’s creation—is the “blessing and the curse of True Scoops.”
People are “blown away by the concept,” she said, “but at the same time, we have so much convincing and educating to do.” The fact that they can now make ice cream has them giddy with excitement. I give the flavor and texture a ten out of ten. Positive feedback has been coming in for it. Individuals