Ready or Not! Here they come… 🎃🦃🎄🎅🏼

[Lovewell]

Yes, the Holidays in many industries can be JAM PACKED. Even if your industry slows down personal life generally picks up!

This isn’t always a bad thing. The holidays have a way of stressing people out but also

bringing people together. We’ve been talking a lot on the community about more face to face  interactions. The holidays are the best time to implement that practice! 

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS HOLIDAY SEASON?
The goal is always to remain positive. We can harp about all the stress that the holidays bring but what brings you joy? 

Anything fun planned

for staff? Yourself? Favorite traditions? 

We love this time of year! The shop is dressed up and everyone wants something yummy to drink.

Can’t wait to hear from you! 

English traditions?! @doc_choc

Oh and we of course have to hear from @CareyJo ✨ 

@TheRealChipA have to know- do we like peppermint ice cream? 

[DinaLRosenberg]

My husband dresses as Krampus every year.. and it's HYSTERICAL 

[Lovewell]

That truly is what nightmares are made of 😂 I would have been SUCH a good child if this was my Christmas lore. 

[CareyJo]

I actually just learned what Krampus was in 2023.  I had no idea.  Then after learning about him, that Christmas movie Red One with the Rock and JK Simmons came out last year, which was cool.  He is so ugly and scary to me, but I know he's supposed to be.  I can't stand to look at him lol... 

My husband is the Grinch.  Like FOR REAL.  Not just the costume.  And yes, he LOVES to play his part and put it on!  I made him a fancy Santa coat last year and he just wears the bottom half, hands and mask.  He gets so hot, even at Christmas, that he won't wear anything other than a Tshirt under that coat, so no need for the top half of the costume I made.  He literally cut it off a couple of years ago 🙄

[TheRealChipA]

@Lovewell Of course "we" do! LOL. In fact it is one of our flavor concentrates, which are available year-round.  Not only are those flavor concentrates great for soft serve, but they make amazing (what we call) Sweet Cream Coffees -- cold brew or cafe americano with a touch of our vanilla soft serve mix and your choice of any combination of our flavors!  Rum Peppermint, anyone?  Or Egg Nog Peppermint?  And, of course, Chocolate Peppermint!  The possibilities might not be endless but they are certainly a lot (over 100,000).   Anyway.....

This will be our second even winter to be open.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it grows.  And, if all goes well and we seal the deal on a lease for our new space, I'm looking forward to opening our first-ever indoor seating areas.  More exciting after we move, we'll be doing neighborhood movie nights this winter -- including holiday movies, of course!  I am working MPLC to obtain an annual umbrella license to show all the movies I want!  I've talked about the dearth of community spaces and how that has degraded and devalued our society.  It's time to do something about that -- no matter how small!  

Anyway, happy holidays everyone!

[CareyJo]

The mixing of flavors with ice cream sounds awesome!  I bet my hubby will try to do that at some point with our stuff too... he already wants to do floats.

[Lovewell]

Please do freezes as well!! Those are my FAV. Like basically a soda milkshake. Yummmmmm

[CareyJo]

I'm one of those people who wants a bucket of ice with 6 ounces of soda lol... when we go to restaurants, I say Coke or Pepsi with EXCESSIVE ice.  People think I'm nuts.  I don't get freezer headaches, so I will be doing lots of freezes!!!

[Lovewell]

Yeah I’m gonna just have to visit. It’s a must. 😂 I FORGOT I should have added to the other chat about collecting things. I collect Coca Cola ornaments. I haven’t dabbled too much in other things but a good vintage Coca-Cola sign is always so tempting. 

[Lovewell]

Peppermint soft serve?!?!?! Pop in a candy cane in that thing and God bless America sign me UP! 

[doc_choc]

You know what, I like the idea of this. We have a soft serve in the shop so I might just try this.

[Lovewell]

Do It!! 

[CareyJo]

🤣😂

[doc_choc]

You know what, we generally switch our soft serve off after the mid October school holiday break as demand drops. But I have seen a change in buying patterns with the younger generations wanting soft serve later in the season (they come in disappointed to see the machine off for the winter). So I may mix things up and keep it on.

We are just about to start putting our Winter menu boards together and any suggestions you have come across we could give a go over here in the UK. Having worked in the US I do find your food and combinations somewhat interesting and innovative.

So is the Cafe Americano a bit like what we call (or the Italians) an Affogato with espresso poured over the soft serve? And what's a sweet cream coffee...sounds intriguing?

[TheRealChipA]

Cafe Americano is a term we first ran across when we were in Prague.  As it was explained to me, it is their version of classic American drip coffee which is, after all, just watered-down espresso.  That's how they make it -- a shot of espresso plus lots more water.

We have Affogatos here.  They are on my menu, with the change that they are made with any flavor soft serve.  We even put toppings on it as customers wish, though that is pretty rare.

As for the Sweet Cream Coffee.... it's sort of a misnomer.  First, understand that our soft serve flavors are blended using flavor concentrates.  These things are highly concentrated (1/50th of an ounce flavors 4 ounces of soft serve).  They add no nutritional value and until they are mixed with something sweet, they are pretty much flavorless by themselves -- similar to what is used for "flavored" sparkling waters.  Anyway....

Early on with Piper's, it dawned on us that would could substitute our liquid soft serve mix for milk and cream in coffees.  Then we would be able to offer virtually limitless coffee flavors by adding our flavor concentrates to that.  It's just a lazy man's version of a latte and that's the way we position it.  Since we aren't a coffee shop, but rather an ice cream shop that happens to offer coffee, it's a perfect and easy way to expand our menu with an innovative product. We do the same thing with all of the beverages in our menu line, since our flavor concentrates even work in sodas, teas and lemonades that have some sugar in them.

[Lovewell]

Have you ever tried soft serve in cold

brew? Cold brew floats are SO GOOD. 

[CareyJo]

Bleck!  To both of you @TheRealChipA lol... I don't like or do coffee.  And we've decided that our new venture will not be a coffee shop.  We will do Lotus, smoothies and floats, but mostly specialty tapped and brewed sodas!  We're getting really excited!!  We looked at the building today...

[Lovewell]

OMG! Can I recommend an alternate to lotus? Not to be weird but their brand freaks me out. We’ve met them in person at conferences. Try and reach out to Tiki Breeze! Anytime we’ve done an energy based drink we use them and adore them. They also sell syrups too! A young family owns it 🙂 Lotus gives major culty vibes 😂 

Your shop already sounds amazing. 

[CareyJo]

Thanks for the advice.  I've never heard of the other company.  Can you tell me why we should steer clear from Lotus?  DM me if needed... It's such a recognizable name here, it will be hard to pass off the other one and not reference it to being like a Lotus.

[TheRealChipA]

@CareyJo Definitely find your niche and exploit the heck out of it. We only have coffee as a compliment to our main purpose — soft serve. It is just another way to exploit what we already do best! And since it doesn’t take up much room, it’s a win-win in my book.

The same can be said about lemonade, iced teas and craft sodas. They give us wider market appeal with little to no effort or expense. This year we will be adding dirty sodas made with our liquid vanilla soft serve mix. Don’t ask me why, but they are all the rage here. 

i don’t make the trends and fads. But I do exploit them if they fit easily. Lol

[Lovewell]

I’m a dirty soda fan!