Who wants ice cream?

It was very worth the 2 mile walk...awesome email from customer.

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 07:59:46 -0400

“I read about your ice cream on Wednesday in the Times and soon ran out to try the Coconut Key Lime. So delicious! Then I re-read the article and decided I had to try the Banana. This required something of a journey since the first place was sold out, but when I got it home and tried it, it was very worth the 2 mile walk. I think there must be some kind of magic in the container, and I have to thank you for making something so outstanding. Thank you!”

The Story Behind our Coconut Key Lime Flavor

Tue, 28 Feb 2012 12:22:00 -0500

We got some negative feedback from a customer yesterday via Twitter that went a little something like this:

“just tried coconut key lime from @phinandphebes. not enough coconut flavor and you can barely recognize the graham crumbles”

First off, we welcome feedback from customers in any form that it comes in. Sometimes we get emails, most of the time we get feedback in person when we’re doing in-store tastings every weekend. We did a lot of testing for all of our flavors and many, many prototypes but every so often we get some bad feedback. This is bound to happen as people’s taste varies greatly and sometimes customers have a preconceived notion in their head about how something should taste. It’s food after all and everyone has their own opinion.

We prefer that people email us so we can find a way to remedy the situation as opposed to calling us out on Twitter in such a negative way but hey, it’s the Internet. I’ve been compelled to call people out myself but mainly companies like Time Warner for consistent, bad service. This blog post isn’t about that though. This blog post is about some of the challenges a small company like us faces when making a food product.

When we first started making ice cream we had no idea what we were doing. We started with interesting concepts but didn’t really know how to make ice cream. For the Coconut Key Lime flavor we literally threw key lime pie into a coconut base.

Obviously this doesn’t scale and we don’t do it anymore but that’s how we got the flavor we wanted and part of how we got to where we are today.

When it came to re-prototyping our flavors so we could manufacture them on a larger scale we literally started from scratch. Many of our old flavors didn’t make the cut due to the fact that we couldn’t source certain ingredients or were just too complex to make on a larger scale. Our Rico Pico flavor (Ricotta ice cream with jalapeño infused pineapple compote) is a good example of this. The Coconut Key Lime had some challenges too. The flavor itself was fairly easy to replicate. The old flavor had graham crust chunks from the pies that we threw in and this is what we envisioned for the new flavor. However when it came time to source a graham cracker crust in became apparent that this would be harder than we thought.

There are a few main challenges any small company such as us faces:

Minimum order quantities
Sourcing quality, all-natural ingredients

The world is geared towards big businesses. Big business have more money and do more volume, which opens many doors. Small businesses on the other hand have a small amount of working capital and cash on hand. Many companies that make things that go into ice cream have HUGE minimum orders, ruling many vendors and ingredients out. In addition to this, ice cream products are laden with things like corn syrup and stabilizers so they can be made cheaply and marked up for profit. This was also a problem for us as our ice cream in all natural so this also ruled out many vendors and ingredients. Here’s an example of a typical graham ingredient that would be used in ice cream, bold items are things we don’t want in our ice cream:

Graham cracker (enriched flour [wheat flour, niacin, reduced iron, thiamine mononitrate, riboflavin, and folic acid], whole wheat flour, sugar, hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oils, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, honey, salt, sodium bicarbonate), soybean oil, powdered sugar (sugar, cornstarch), coconut oil, mono and diglycerides, salt and soy lecithin.

Lastly, some baked goods just do not hold up in ice cream because ice cream is full of moisture and will breakdown and make mushy certain types of baked goods. Graham crust is one of those baked goods. This is why you see things like corn syrup in graham ingredients because corn syrup is a fat that blocks moisture so the graham can maintain its integrity. If you’re a company like Ciao Bella or Häagen-Dazs you can hire a company to make you a custom ingredient but we are not those companies.

Our Coconut Key Lime flavor almost didn’t make it to market but we were able to find a graham crumb that fit the bill and we describe it as such on our packaging. It’s a crumb - not a “crumble” and not a “chunk.” Would we like to see chunks in this flavor? Absolutely. The limitations we have make this impossible for the time being though.

I bet you didn’t think ice cream was so complicated did you?

The Story Behind the Ginger Cookies in Our Ginger Cookie Snap Ice Cream

Sat, 25 Feb 2012 13:30:00 -0500

Our Ginger Cookie Snap flavor is possibly one of our most surprising flavors. Which is surprising in and of itself when you compare it to some of our other unique flavors like Vietnamese Iced Coffee, Banana Whama (banana pudding ice cream cream) and Vanilla Cinnamon. What people find surprising about it is that you can actually taste the ginger. Not like a little bit, not a hint but a lot. If there’s one thing we don’t do well, it’s subtlety. We don’t just want to make interesting ice cream flavors, we want to make flavors that literally go BOOM in your mouth. Too much?

When we started making the Ginger Cookie Snap flavor in our home kitchen we would hand bake these delicious ginger cookies with lemon frosting filling. They looked like this:

We actually cooked them so that they were soft and chewy but they still tasted like a ginger snap. The flavor was great and they were a wonderful accompaniment to that flavor of ice cream.

We now have a baker that makes this cookie in larger sheet trays and the cookie gets broken up into pieces like this:

They are still just as delicious as we use the same recipe as we used to. We keep the cookies frozen so that when they go into the ice cream they can do a good job of blocking potential moisture and in turn stay ginger “snappy” and almost crunchy.

These cookies make their way into the ice cream by going through what’s called a “fruit feeder,” which contrary to the name is not just for fruit. It’s the industry term for this type of equipment but basically is used for any “inclusion” (chunk) that goes into ice cream. The fruit feeder takes these chunks of cookie bits and grinds them up a little bit but more importantly folds it into the ice cream as it’s coming out of the batch freezer at a rate that makes it evenly distributed, like this:

We hope you enjoy our Ginger Cookie Snap! If you’d like to send us feedback, you can get in touch with us here: yum@phinandphebes.com

We got some pretty serious photos taken last night, do I have...

Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:02:29 -0500

We got some pretty serious photos taken last night, do I have anything on my face?

@mikebrittain enjoying some Vietnamese Iced Coffee ice cream at...

Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:51:02 -0500

@mikebrittain enjoying some Vietnamese Iced Coffee ice cream at work over at Etsy.

“Oh, you shouldn’t have! @phinandphebes this is the best...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 20:29:13 -0500

“Oh, you shouldn’t have! @phinandphebes this is the best Valentine’s Day gift!”

Just updated our “Radar” page, you’ll find us at Foodtown in Williamsburg on...

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 12:19:58 -0500

Just updated our “Radar” page, you’ll find us at Foodtown in Williamsburg on Saturday and Brooklyn Fare on Sunday. Get some free ice cream!

http://phinandphebes.com/radar

Pro tip: always say “YES” to free ice cream.

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:55:43 -0500

Pro tip: always say “YES” to free ice cream.

Here’s a sexy close up of Banana Whama (banana pudding ice...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:16:16 -0500

Here’s a sexy close up of Banana Whama (banana pudding ice cream).

Just uploaded some new product shots to our Facebook page. Check...

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 09:39:35 -0500

Just uploaded some new product shots to our Facebook page. Check ‘em out and like us while you’re there!!

Free Ice Cream (Taken with Instagram at Union Market)

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:08:29 -0500

Free Ice Cream (Taken with Instagram at Union Market)

Meet Cookie Fairy Sweets!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:23:23 -0500

At an in-store demo last Saturday we were lucky enough to meet Paige McCurdy-Flynn (shown right), Founder of Cookie Fairy Sweets.

Cookie Fairy Sweets is a fairly new company, which is probably why we had never seen the product before. However we were very lucky to be in the same place at the same time because we were introduced to her very unique and delicious product.

She makes what she calls “fresh-baked, frozen cookies.” These cookies, which can be eaten directly out of the freezer are baked in small batches and are 100% preservative-free. Paige freezes her cookies for this reason, to keep them free of preservatives. Pretty unique idea if you ask us! And they are delicious to boot. You can see the quality just by looking at the cookie and can taste the quality in every little delicious, chunky bite.

Paige currently produces three flavors:

Lil’ Devils: Fully Loaded Chocolate Cookies with Hints of Spice
Oats & Raisins: Hearty Oatmeal with Rum Soaked California Raisins
My Man Cookies: Chocolate Chip, Oatmeal, Pecan and Coconut

Find out more here: http://www.cookiefairysweets.com

Hey, we're taking a poll!

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 12:17:19 -0500

We’re taking a poll: what’s your favorite thing to eat scoops of ice cream in? Answer here! https://t.co/65dlwM2P

so today, I tried your ice cream for the first time. I am in love. But you already broke my heart, you were sold out. I need more ginger snap, urgent, emergency vietnamess ice coffee too!!! love, Eloy

Sun, 22 Jan 2012 08:39:00 -0500

Aww, that is indeed heartbreaking! Where are you purchasing our ice cream? We make deliveries on Tuesdays of each week, so you should be able to swing by and get some more then. Also check out our buy page to see other locations where you might be able to pick up some more in the meantime: http://phinandphebes.com/buy.

Hope we don’t break your heart again!

“It really does taste like banana pudding in frozen form,...

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:47:14 -0500

“It really does taste like banana pudding in frozen form, only fluffier. I ate half the pint with a spoon and made impromptu ice cream sandwiches with the other half. It’s a playful ice cream with intense, unmistakeable flavors…”

A nice little write up in Serious Eats: http://newyork.seriouseats.com/2012/01/sugar-rush-phin-phebes-at-murrays-cheese.html

Have you had our ice cream? If so, leave your thoughts about it in a comment on that post!

"Just wanted to let you know that we are in lust with your ice cream! We’ve been devouring it..."

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 18:09:45 -0500

“Just wanted to let you know that we are in lust with your ice cream! We’ve been devouring it every evening with our 2 year-old daughter, and we are super-foodies also based in BK. Food is our religion, you might say. How pleasant to have one’s expectations surpassed! Just wanted you to know we’re your new PR team, LOL.”

- Email from a customer.

Meet: Brooklyn Victory Garden

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 17:57:00 -0500

Today we met with a new store who will be carrying our ice cream. The store is called Brooklyn Victory Garden. Located in Clinton Hill, they are a neighborhood destination for meats, gifts, cheeses and other food goods (like ice cream!) that are ethically and sustainably sourced. You can check them out at: http://brooklynvictorygarden.com and you can follow them on Twitter here: @bkvictorygarden.

Baked goods from Baked up top.

P&H Soda Syrups to the left and McClure’s Pickles to the far right.

Brooklyn Victory Garden
920 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11238 (map)Monday-Friday: 8am-9pm
Saturday and Sunday: 8am-8pm
Phone: 718-398-9100

More locations where you can buy our ice cream: http://phinandphebes.com/buy

How we became an ice cream company (Part 3)

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 12:53:00 -0500

(This is a little slice of a bigger story. We’ll keep writing and adding to this story until it’s all told).

We left off with the last post in the Fall of 2010. With hopes of turning our small little operation into a serious endeavor we decided to go to Ice Cream University. Yes, it’s a real thing. Most people laugh when we talk about this, because well - it sounds ridiculous. Quite the contrary, Ice Cream University is probably the most serious thing we’ve ever done. Ice Cream University takes place at Penn State (also home of the famous Berkey Creamery) and is a week long (8am-10pm, no joke) intensive, food science based course where you can learn all about every aspect of ice cream production. As soon as we walked in the door, we were handed a book that was 4.5 inches thick and on the first day we were doing algebra. I immediately started having flashbacks to high school and had this “omg I’m never going to understand this” feeling. Like all things though with a little time it started to make sense.

(Berkey Creamery at Penn State University)

(Tasting and testing ice creams made using different mix calculations)

Math is a big part of ice cream, where the formula for your base is concerned. One of the things we were dying to learn was how to standardize our recipes. We had created some great flavors but each base was different and in the ice cream world, this is a huge headache. This is because typically you have one base for white ice creams and one for chocolate ice creams, then you flavor them accordingly. Instead we had one base for each flavor and this was a problem. To give you a little insight into the world of mix calculations, this is a short paragraph from http://dairyscience.info:

There are several methods that can be used to determine the quantities of ingredients required to meet a target ice cream mix formulation. However, ingredient costs are also important and there is a balance between cost and quality that often must be considered. One of the simpler methods for performing mix calculations is known as the serum point method and can be learned quite quickly. Mix compositions can also be calculated using linear programming and other more advanced mathematical techniques.

(Our math)

Linear programming, yeah OK! Learning the knowledge to standardize flavors like Ginger Cookie Snap, Coconut Key Lime and Banana Whama was underway!

How we became an ice cream company (Part 2)

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 15:26:00 -0500

In the Fall of 2010 we were both still working full-time jobs. We had tested our product on a lot of people in the summer months, mostly strangers. This was important to us because strangers are the only true source of validation. Friends and family will always tell you nice things, strangers won’t. We had seen a lot of happy faces, a lot of “OH my’s” after someone takes a first bite of our ice cream. At this point, there was also probably a fair amount of naivety at play. Being naive is a great character trait for launching a business because if you actually knew how hard it was, you probably wouldn’t do it.

(The branding that we created for our first Website. This fun and bright look and feel is a trait that personified us as a company and something that we carried over to our new brand).

In a pretty short amount of time we thought we had created something unique that people really liked.

(Real email from a customer)

However we knew continuing to operate on our small level was not a feasible long term strategy. We had already reached our limit, being that there was only two of us. We didn’t have the type of machinery needed to produce larger quantities of ice cream nor were we about to go buy it. A 24-quart ice cream machine alone can cost $25,000! Never mind the other equipment we needed like freezers, a delivery truck. How were we going to pull this off? We also knew we still had a lot of learning to do, not just about business but about ice cream. What came next? A schooling in ice cream at Ice Cream University.

How we became an ice cream company (Part 1)

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 14:50:00 -0500

(This is a little slice of a bigger story. We’ll keep writing and adding to this story until it’s all told).

Life is full of surprises. Never in our wildest dreams did we ever think we’d create an ice cream company. It’s just one of those things that just kind of happened.

Here we are almost two years after we made our first little batch of ice cream together for fun. Our first little batch of ice cream turned into several batches, which turned into a line of flavors, which turned into showcasing those flavors to the general public at an arts, crafts and food fair one and a half years ago. The rest of the story, to be honest - is a bit of a blur. We spent a very sleepless summer, two summers ago making ice cream and testing our product with customers at the Hester Street Fair. We were riding high on the “hey, they like us…they really, really like us” feeling! That energy and positive feedback was a huge booster for us and one of the main reasons we continued.

(Our table at the Hester Street Fair where we sold scoops of ice cream, summer of 2010)

We even made it into a couple stores that Fall and then it hit us. What are we doing? How are we going to continue to grow and meet demand when we’re working full-time jobs and are not even really set up to produce ice cream on a larger scale? Oh yeah - and we’re hobbyists, what do we really know about ice cream? It was one of those moments where we could feel the potential from the momentum that had gotten us that far. It was also time for us to make a decision. We were either going to really do this or we weren’t.

We chose to do it.

(Part two to be posted later today).