Ice Cream Dream

31 Jul 2023

I wonder how much ice cream I have to make to offset the supply cost.

For the typical French custard style ice cream. The costs are:

• heavy whipping cream, $7.79 / quart -> $4 / batch
• whole milk, $3.99 / half gallon -> $ 1 / batch
• sugar, $10 / 10 pounds -> $0.33 batch
• light corn syrup -> $4.79 / 16 oz -> $0.60 / batch
• eggs -> $15 / 60 -> $1.5 / batch
• tapioca starch -> $15 / 4 lbs -> $0.05 / batch
• flavoring -> $ 1 / batch

4 + 1 + 0.33 + 0.6 + 1.5 + 0.05 + 1 -> $8.5 / 1 quart of ice cream

$4.25 / pint for home made ice cream compared with $7.5 / pint for Ben & Jerry’s.

My profit is $3.25 minus labor. Let’s assume it is fun, so $3.25 per pint of ice cream to pay off ice cream making supplies.

• $70 for ice cream maker
• $25 for ice cream containers

Let’s round it up to $100. I need to make about 30 pints of ice cream…

So far I’ve made,

• Lychee Oatmilk Sherbet
• Coffee Ice Cream
• Green Tea Ice Cream
• Coffee Ice Cream
• Peach Sherbet

I average about 4 pints of frozen desserts a week, so it will take about 2 months.