WEBVTT - A Ridiculous History of 'Soft Serve' 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:27.520 Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to 0:00:27.560 --> 0:00:30.960 the show, fellow Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so 0:00:31.200 --> 0:00:35.680 much for tuning in. That's our super producer. Mister Max Williams. 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:39.159 Is here and I am soft and I'm served Max. 0:00:39.479 --> 0:00:40.920 Mister Softy Williams. 0:00:41.040 --> 0:00:42.080 There, it is there. 0:00:42.120 --> 0:00:47.240 It is known around the world as a delicious lothario. 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:47.960 Is Max. 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.240 They call me Ben Bull and you were Noel Brown. 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:53.519 Oh and no, we were talking off air. We get 0:00:53.560 --> 0:00:57.520 a lot of our ideas for future episodes during our 0:00:58.080 --> 0:00:59.920 explorations of other talk. 0:01:00.480 --> 0:01:04.280 Oh and the world actually in the United States, right, 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:05.000 You and. 0:01:05.000 --> 0:01:09.440 I thought, uh, some time ago, what better way to 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:14.560 celebrate summer than to talk a little bit about cool treats? 0:01:14.840 --> 0:01:15.600 Cool treats. 0:01:15.720 --> 0:01:19.240 Do you remember what Dairy Queen's logo used to be 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:22.120 or they're not logo their their tagline used to be? 0:01:22.760 --> 0:01:25.600 Oh, what was it? It was hot eats, cool. 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.600 Treat That's right, that's right. Also, shout out to Dairy 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.759 Queen for teaching a lot of young kids the word brazier. 0:01:33.160 --> 0:01:35.160 Well that's what I was gonna say, Ben. It used 0:01:35.160 --> 0:01:36.800 to be did it was stuckies? 0:01:37.600 --> 0:01:39.960 Related to dairy Queen, because I swear I would always 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.520 see like combination Stuckies and dairy Queen, but then they 0:01:43.560 --> 0:01:44.480 would also a deal. 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:45.679 They must have been a deal, but it was a 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:46.240 long time ago. 0:01:46.319 --> 0:01:49.440 And then that word Brazier referred to the fact that 0:01:49.480 --> 0:01:52.520 they made burgers that they they would will meets. But 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:55.880 that seems very antiquated now and I don't think they 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.760 have that anymore, except maybe like some of the legacy 0:01:58.920 --> 0:02:02.440 rbs that still have the neon hat, there may well 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.840 be some Dairy Queen Braziers still out there in the world. 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:08.880 The franchisees who didn't want to pay extra to update 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.239 the signage or you know, want. 0:02:11.000 --> 0:02:13.640 To preserve history. Max. I know you got something to say. 0:02:14.280 --> 0:02:15.480 Not really too much about this. 0:02:15.560 --> 0:02:16.880 I mean, it does sound like it could be like 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.200 a was it Rallies and Checkers you Gotta Eat, but 0:02:19.240 --> 0:02:21.200 like they're regionally named, it could be something. 0:02:21.560 --> 0:02:22.919 Like Carls Junior and Harty's. 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:26.799 Yeah yeah, Well, shout out to Brazier and shout out 0:02:26.840 --> 0:02:30.320 to our research associate for today's episode, which is none 0:02:30.320 --> 0:02:33.360 other than you, mister Brown. You've had something on your 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:38.799 mind for a minute. I've got to ask Noel Max 0:02:38.880 --> 0:02:42.520 or you guys, would you call yourselves ice cream fans? Max, 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:44.880 just pretend the condition isn't real for a second. 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:48.280 Well, I mean, oh gosh, yeah, ah, the condition. Yeah. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:51.160 I mean I do enjoy ice cream. Back when I 0:02:51.160 --> 0:02:52.920 could eat the back when I could eat ice cream, 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:54.880 I did thoroughly enjoy ice cream. 0:02:54.960 --> 0:02:57.200 It was just like your flavor, what's your go to? 0:02:57.800 --> 0:02:59.360 Oh my god, I don't know. 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:00.919 I'm not too bad, Hickey. I kind of liked it, 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:04.239 going like, I don't like anything that's like two intensible flavor. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:07.359 You know, you have those ones like like the quadruple chocolate, 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:09.520 or like the blue one or the one that tastes 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:11.280 like blue and stuff like that. 0:03:10.600 --> 0:03:13.800 Well, the one like blue, Yeah, like the very frank 0:03:13.880 --> 0:03:17.120 Rid Olds Dandy de Vito I liked. Uh. I was 0:03:17.280 --> 0:03:18.000 looking this up me. 0:03:18.080 --> 0:03:20.680 We'll talk about it in a different episode. But if 0:03:20.680 --> 0:03:24.320 you guys remember a place called the Spaghetti Factory. They 0:03:24.360 --> 0:03:29.720 were to themselves famous. They were self confirmed famous for 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.360 an ice cream flavor they I called Spamoni. 0:03:32.960 --> 0:03:36.000 Spamoni is a is a very famous just Italian flavor 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:38.400 and that you'll see in a lot of like Italian 0:03:38.400 --> 0:03:41.360 Restaurantsre's actually a place in New York and I'm playing. 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:45.680 It's Queen's called or maybe it's the Bronx called Spamoni Gardens, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:49.920 and it's a very well loved, local, kind of Italian 0:03:50.000 --> 0:03:52.080 joint that does Semoni's. I had Spamoni for the very 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:55.640 first time recently, and it's got kind of mixed fruit 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.800 in it, like cheriots and pistaschio nuts and. 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:01.240 Strawberry very good. 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:03.360 Those are my favorite nuts, by the way, pistashio and 0:04:03.400 --> 0:04:05.360 hazel nut, those two favorite nuts. 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:07.840 Put them together. You got yourself a flavor party. Ben. 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:10.520 By the way, Stuckey's and Dairy Queen did share a 0:04:10.560 --> 0:04:14.080 deep corporate background, and we'll get to that a little 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:16.839 bit later in today's episode about the history of soft store. 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:17.520 Ben. 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:19.960 I like weird flavors, unlike Max. I love a blue 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:24.839 I love a double double chocolate trouble. I really, really, though, 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.920 quite especially in the summer, love soft serve ice cream. 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:31.600 There's something about the texture and the things you can 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.359 do with it. I love a dipped cone, be it 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.280 a Dairy Queen one, or even be it I think 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:38.599 McDonald's does a dip cone. 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:40.400 Maybe they did used to, but they don't anymore. 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.640 And I do love a dipped cone that comes from 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:46.159 a truck something about that. 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:49.720 It's different, right, Yeah, I think it's because it's an 0:04:49.720 --> 0:04:53.080 off the book's business so often, but also folks to 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:58.040 get in front of the opprobrium in the outcry, we 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.760 are going to be using the phrase soft serve ice 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.080 cream pretty often in this episode. 0:05:04.520 --> 0:05:06.120 We are aware that. 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:11.000 There are some litigious people out there, perhaps pedants, who 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:14.520 might object to that phrase, as we'll see. But look 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:21.880 legal uh, legal specs and requirements aside. We're not going 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.760 to be the fun police here just yet. We got 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:28.480 to admit whether you consider yourself a person with a 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:31.160 sweet tooth or not, Like I don't particularly have a 0:05:31.160 --> 0:05:32.040 sweet tooth. 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.040 On my own. You got it? Thank you? 0:05:36.160 --> 0:05:37.960 Yeah, I was gonna I was gonna rip off that 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:39.840 Guy Ritchie line as well. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:40.640 What is it? 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:48.440 It's a bricktop right who to his pigs right, bricktop 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.240 London gangster in one of the Guy Ritchie films, is 0:05:53.520 --> 0:05:57.960 midway through threatening a group of would be thugs and 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.280 then he gets he gets some tea and they ask 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:03.760 him if you want sugar, and he's like, that's ike 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:07.760 techish on sweet enough, and then he proceeds as you said, 0:06:07.880 --> 0:06:09.320 almost feed people to pigs. 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:10.960 But what we're. 0:06:10.800 --> 0:06:15.120 Saying is, even if you yourself personally don't feel the 0:06:15.279 --> 0:06:19.240 call of chilled sweetness, with the ice cream truck and 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.560 that that song that programs us all you gotta admit 0:06:23.080 --> 0:06:27.000 ice cream and later soft surf, these are amazing inventions 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:29.120 and they're kind of symbol right. 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.280 The food science and just the engineering aspect. And this 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:41.919 is the kind of like a I don't know, a 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:44.480 stroke of genius that led to this becoming such a 0:06:44.520 --> 0:06:47.760 booming industry is worth the price of admission alone, and 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.280 ben to get ahead of the legal beagles. That to 0:06:50.320 --> 0:06:51.840 your point, I'm just going to refer to it as 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:54.599 soft serf because it's fun to say so. Soft serve 0:06:54.720 --> 0:06:57.720 does seem like a simple invention. It's a cold, creamy 0:06:57.880 --> 0:07:01.719 ice cream treat that comes from that swirls into a 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:04.359 little cone. But the history is actually, like we were saying, 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.000 a threefold story, fourfold, fivefold. 0:07:08.080 --> 0:07:09.960 Even we've got through science. 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:13.200 Yeah, we've got refrigeration, which is of course a huge 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.080 part of the history of being able to like move 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.320 things from parts of the country or the world where 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:20.600 they grow to other places without having them spoil. 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:23.160 Huge part of the history of the world. 0:07:23.520 --> 0:07:30.160 Roadside attractions and entrepreneurship, the idea of franchises, and of 0:07:30.200 --> 0:07:34.080 course marketing. And one thing I think we both find 0:07:34.080 --> 0:07:36.520 a little interesting about the story of soft serve, and 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.640 this comes into play with a lot of inventions. Is 0:07:39.680 --> 0:07:42.920 that parallel thinking factor that you know I love to mention. 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:45.800 We're not quite sure. We can't really point to a 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.960 single inventor that led to the creation of the soft 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:51.920 serve industry as we know it today, but we're going 0:07:51.960 --> 0:07:55.360 to at least discuss some of the prime candidates. 0:07:55.240 --> 0:07:59.600 Absolutely, and folks, just to set the bar here, we 0:07:59.760 --> 0:08:04.400 have to make sure everybody knows ice cream itself, the 0:08:04.760 --> 0:08:08.840 iced creams, as Nola once called them a few years back, 0:08:09.600 --> 0:08:13.119 that concept is a lot older than this thing called 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:19.240 soft serve, because even before modern refrigeration, which was a 0:08:19.280 --> 0:08:24.280 game changer, frozen desserts of some kind existed in various forms. 0:08:24.320 --> 0:08:27.240 I'm thinking, of course, of things like the Inuit whale 0:08:27.400 --> 0:08:31.080 ice cream. But that's because they lived in an environment 0:08:31.120 --> 0:08:32.800 that was naturally refrigerated. 0:08:33.000 --> 0:08:35.560 Sure, okay, I didn't think about that, And folks, you 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:37.720 may want to go back and visit an episode we 0:08:37.760 --> 0:08:40.600 did not two distant past on the history of ice cream. 0:08:40.440 --> 0:08:44.160 Trucks, right, yeah, yeah, So there might. 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.800 Be some redundant stuff in this, but we are focusing 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:51.240 primarily on soft serve specifically, which is a big part 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:53.839 of that's going to be the Carvel Company, which we'll 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:56.360 get to in just a bit. So to your point, Ben, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:09:00.600 we're talking kind of hard serve, right, like hard scooped 0:09:00.640 --> 0:09:03.360 ice cream that in order to you know, you churn 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.520 it then harden it at very low temperatures, often involving 0:09:07.960 --> 0:09:12.319 like salt rock salt, and it does require a scoop 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:13.600 or a spoon to. 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:14.040 Get it out. 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:15.920 And you know, as we all know, anyone that pulls 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:18.480 a kind of Ben and Jerry's out of the freezer, 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:20.360 you kind of want to let it sit for a second, 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:22.160 or even put it in the microwave for ten seconds 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.680 or so. Otherwise it's like, you know, digging into the 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:25.600 frozen tundra. 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:27.199 It's hard to get purchase. 0:09:28.040 --> 0:09:30.040 So this kind of created a bit of a practical 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.319 problem for the folks that were trying to sling this stuff. 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:35.520 The product had to be stored it's such temperatures, such 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.840 cold temperatures, in order to keep it firm and serving 0:09:38.880 --> 0:09:40.720 it required a bit of effort because you had to 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:43.640 scoop it out. So the development of mechanical refrigeration and 0:09:43.679 --> 0:09:46.160 these special ed freezers opened the door to something a 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:50.000 little bit different, a frozen dessert that could be frozen, 0:09:50.520 --> 0:09:53.960 air rated and then served right away. Like it's like 0:09:54.320 --> 0:09:58.280 all in one stop shop. You're basically making it to order. 0:09:59.120 --> 0:10:01.480 And by the way, folks, I want to shout out 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.760 everybody who grew up with one of those homemade ice 0:10:04.800 --> 0:10:08.560 cream creation kits. Cranks, yeah, because you have to crank 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:12.080 it in the circular fashion. It's a it's a bonding 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.680 experience with your kids, but it does take a while, 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:19.559 and if you are a parent in these very hurried days, 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:24.000 you may have a moment where you think we should 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:25.280 just go to the grocery store. 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:27.000 But it's fun. It's the experience. 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.240 And also, to be clear, Alaskan ice cream or the 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.440 stuff made by traditional First Nations people up north, that 0:10:35.640 --> 0:10:38.160 is not what you think of when you think of 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.200 ice cream. It does have sweet stuff sometimes like raspberries 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:46.720 and blueberries, but it is made from seal oil, caribou, moose, 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:48.720 or walrus tallow. 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:51.800 So yeah, meat cream a meat cream. 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:56.760 I love that you know what, I try it. I'm 0:10:56.800 --> 0:11:00.120 not a verse to trying some meat cream. So this 0:11:00.200 --> 0:11:04.160 guy named Charles Taylor is an important figure who in 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:08.959 nineteen twenty six came up with this idea to have 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:12.960 an ice cream machine that used prepared ingredients, whipped them 0:11:12.960 --> 0:11:18.120 into a smooth consistency, and then dispensed them. Essentially, it 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:22.560 wasn't exactly a soft serve machine, but it was very 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.360 very much the predecessor to what we think of as 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.200 the you know, the lever you pull and then the 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:30.280 little swirl that comes out. I'm having a hard time 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.120 picturing this, and because it is definitely older technology that 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:36.120 isn't his viable anymore. I had a hard time finding 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:39.080 an actual image of one. But I think my understanding 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:41.560 is that is it is more of a mechanized version 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:43.800 of that hand crank machine that you're talking about. 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.360 Ben Ah, Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:49.400 He did. Taylor. 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:54.400 Taylor's a fascinating character, folks, and he did as we said, 0:11:54.720 --> 0:11:57.720 He did appear to be the first to the market 0:11:58.040 --> 0:12:01.040 filing a patent for that ice cream machine. And I 0:12:01.040 --> 0:12:05.719 think I want to say maybe it was stuff of genius. 0:12:05.760 --> 0:12:09.520 Where we talked a little bit about him, but as 0:12:09.559 --> 0:12:14.240 you said, we have many other inventors and entrepreneurs in 0:12:14.280 --> 0:12:19.120 the fold here. One of the classic ridiculous history stories 0:12:19.559 --> 0:12:24.680 involves another guy, a guy named Tom Carvell. That's a 0:12:24.840 --> 0:12:28.439 surname a lot of our ice cream fans will recognize 0:12:28.480 --> 0:12:32.840 because he founded the Carvel ice Cream Company, and he's 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:36.600 got a weird he's got a weird story about it 0:12:36.640 --> 0:12:41.200 that happens Memorial Day weekend way back in nineteen thirty four. 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:43.240 For sure, Ben and Carvell. 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:45.439 To folks living in our neck of the woods in 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.360 the southern part of the US, it's not necessarily going 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.120 to be something that you grew up with. I think 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:54.199 maybe maybe Ben, You of course remember things like Baskin 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:59.680 Robbins to a lesser degree. Cold Stone was came along 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:04.360 a little bit later, But we didn't really hoggin did 0:13:04.679 --> 0:13:07.280 We didn't really grow up around Carvell. That was more 0:13:08.679 --> 0:13:11.480 than North Northeast kind of thing. And that you will 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:14.680 find them. There are some around in Atlanta, as we 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:18.520 will discuss later. Their their stock has fallen considerably and 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.240 there are far fewer locations there ever were were. But 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:26.240 in their heyday they were pretty ubiquitous, and they definitely 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:28.559 were much more concentrated in. 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:30.040 The northeast of the US. 0:13:30.240 --> 0:13:36.120 So what happened was Tom Carvell, during Memorial Day weekend, 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:37.960 as he said been in nineteen thirty four, had an 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.199 ice cream truck, and the truck had, you know the 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:46.160 misfortune of suffering a flat tire while roaming around the 0:13:46.160 --> 0:13:51.480 streets of Hartsdale, New York, and you know, basically disabled 0:13:51.480 --> 0:13:53.120 out in the field like that, he wasn't able to 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:56.439 keep his ice cream properly frozen. But he needed to 0:13:57.040 --> 0:13:59.480 sell this stuff, so he started to sell the partially 0:13:59.520 --> 0:14:04.800 melted product to folks that were happening by. And the 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:07.520 thing that was surprising to him was that they actually 0:14:07.559 --> 0:14:08.720 seemed to like it. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:13.040 Yeah, because think about it, folks, it's easier to eat. 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:17.920 You don't have to have a high endurance spoon or 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:23.239 scooping mechanism. You can walk around the block of Heartsdale 0:14:23.440 --> 0:14:28.080 and just liquor bite to your heart's content until you 0:14:28.160 --> 0:14:35.200 get the brain freeze. And Carvell recognized this opportunity. He's 0:14:35.240 --> 0:14:39.800 a lot like Percy Spencer, the guy who figured out 0:14:40.960 --> 0:14:45.480 microwave ovens when a chocolate bar melted in his pocket. 0:14:45.600 --> 0:14:50.600 So Carvell, obviously nobody wants a flat tire. 0:14:50.680 --> 0:14:52.080 But Carvell sees. 0:14:51.800 --> 0:14:56.400 The creamy silver lining here and says, I've got an opportunity. 0:14:56.960 --> 0:15:01.240 Folks actually liked this ice cream at his temperature softer 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:05.320 it's easier to eat. And what if I made a 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:09.680 business where I just sold this softer ice cream? 0:15:09.880 --> 0:15:13.640 Pretty smart, quite an aha moment, and Carvel said about 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:17.040 figuring out a way to do this at scale. He 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:20.800 went on to develop specialized freezing equipment and a formula 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.280 for soft served ice cream. By the late thirties and 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.800 early forties, he had turned the idea into just that, 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:31.400 a scalable business. Smithsonian does a great job of describing 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:33.280 the equipment. 0:15:32.840 --> 0:15:33.640 That he created. 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:38.120 It was essentially a batch freezer that later he patented 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:43.640 and converted into a sellable equipment, you know, mass marketed 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.840 equipment that he sold to other operations, which helped spread 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:49.480 the technology beyond his own stores. And for a while 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:54.680 that was kind of his main thing, was selling these 0:15:55.080 --> 0:15:58.280 machines to other companies. And then I believe he even 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.440 had like master classes where he would tea them how 0:16:00.440 --> 0:16:02.800 to use it. He was also like the voice of 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.440 the company because he was driving around. I think he 0:16:05.440 --> 0:16:08.520 heard like a radio ad that was created for his company. 0:16:08.560 --> 0:16:10.680 He didn't like it, so he went to the radio 0:16:10.720 --> 0:16:14.200 station and asked to redo the ad in his own voice. 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.440 So he kind of set the standard for like the 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:20.520 Colonel Sanders's and you know Tom Bowdetts of the world, 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:23.880 Dave Thomas's of the world in being not only the 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.880 CEO and the creator behind the brand, but also the 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:31.000 face of the brand. And Fudgi the whale you may know, 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.840 again not really something that I grew up with, but 0:16:33.920 --> 0:16:36.680 it is like an ice cream cake, and Carvel was 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:41.440 also very important in the mass marketing and you know 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.040 proliferation of the ice cream cake. It's literally this like 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.240 chocolate whale shaped cake with like whipped cream and ice 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:52.960 cream layers and really really popular for birthdays and Father's days. 0:16:52.760 --> 0:16:53.880 And stuff like that. 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:59.080 And there's one spoiler I've got to put in here, fellow, fellow, 0:16:59.160 --> 0:17:03.080 ridiculous history. You'll enjoy this, and you'll see where we're 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:07.439 going with it. You could say the difference between soft 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:11.840 serve and ice cream is the same as the difference 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.720 between a potato chip and a puffed crisp. 0:17:16.240 --> 0:17:19.120 Aha. That's a very good point, Ben. 0:17:19.800 --> 0:17:23.080 Is it to do with how like whether it kind 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:26.800 of comes from like real ingredients or like some sort 0:17:26.840 --> 0:17:30.640 of is it like a dairy treat, dairy dessert rather 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:32.800 than like a cream you know what I mean? Like 0:17:32.920 --> 0:17:36.320 what is it cheese product versus like actual whole milk cheese. 0:17:36.480 --> 0:17:37.760 Yeah, let's get into it. 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:41.879 As we're we're planting that seed there, that soft served 0:17:42.000 --> 0:17:52.560 tree is going to grow here momentarily. Nolan, the research 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:57.119 you point out, thanks to soft Serveperth dot com dot 0:17:57.160 --> 0:18:03.399 au that there was a there was a growing industry 0:18:03.880 --> 0:18:06.840 popping up in different parts of the US. We mentioned 0:18:06.880 --> 0:18:09.560 Dairy Queen. We have to let you know, folks that 0:18:10.320 --> 0:18:15.000 around the same time that carvel was becoming a legend, 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:22.280 there was another completely unrelated group of folks looking into 0:18:22.520 --> 0:18:25.159 what we call soft serve out in the Midwest. 0:18:25.600 --> 0:18:27.520 Yep. It's that parallel thinking, man. 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.959 I mean, it's like, you know, people can have an 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.040 idea at the same time and not necessarily be stealing 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.160 at almost the exact same time. To your point, Ben, 0:18:36.200 --> 0:18:41.400 the McCullough family, headed up by John Fremont JF. McCullough, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:44.880 along with his son Alex, had developed a soft serve 0:18:44.960 --> 0:18:48.680 formula of their own. In nineteen thirty eight, they tested 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.679 the product at the ice cream shop belonging to a 0:18:51.720 --> 0:18:54.840 friend of theirs with a fabulous named Sherb Noble. Is 0:18:54.840 --> 0:18:58.879 that nominal determinism there, Ben Sherb, Sherbert Sherberts, how do 0:18:58.920 --> 0:18:59.320 you say it? 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:04.000 I love the concept of nominative determinism. I've been winging about. 0:19:03.760 --> 0:19:06.639 It for years, and I like the idea that maybe 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:11.920 he had some very specific opinions about Sherbert, but Sherbert 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:15.199 might be a little bit outside the scope of softser 0:19:15.359 --> 0:19:16.800 is Nola's soft served? 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:18.280 Is Sherbert soft serve? 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:21.160 I don't think so. Sherbet does a hard pack ice 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.199 cream as well. I think it just has to do 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.880 with the cream content once again, right, there are some 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:27.280 then diagrams. 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.680 Oh, Sherbert has like one to two percent milk fat, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:31.600 so way less than. 0:19:31.600 --> 0:19:34.239 Ice cream, right, and it tends to be more you know, 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:37.359 fruity flavors. But that's all I really know about Sherbet. 0:19:37.400 --> 0:19:39.360 It's never been my go to, although I will say, 0:19:39.359 --> 0:19:42.360 when it is presented to me, a nice orange Sherbert 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:44.440 is pretty refreshing and tasty. 0:19:44.920 --> 0:19:49.320 Yeah, it's I'm not so much on the orange orange flavors, 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:50.000 but I'll. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:53.000 Tell you it's fine, sure, Sherbert is. Yeah, it's one 0:19:53.000 --> 0:19:53.719 of those things. 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:56.720 I love the fruity flavors, most of them. Sherbert's one 0:19:56.760 --> 0:20:00.280 of those things where, like you, if I I'm in 0:20:00.359 --> 0:20:02.960 an area and somebody offers it, I'm not going to 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.480 get mad at him. But I don't stay up late 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.680 at night wondering if I'll ever eat Sherbert again. 0:20:08.800 --> 0:20:12.040 Well, it seems to be the general consensus, because I 0:20:12.080 --> 0:20:13.560 don't know that I see Sir Sherb Butt. It just 0:20:13.600 --> 0:20:16.200 doesn't seem to be nearly as popular as it maybe 0:20:16.240 --> 0:20:19.640 once was. But that is just a conjecture on my part. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:23.920 The test at Sherberdery and ken Kaki, Illinois, was a 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:27.399 smashing success, as you might have imagined, Ben. According to 0:20:27.640 --> 0:20:33.399 the Dairy Queen Historian, the customers consumed more than sixteen 0:20:33.600 --> 0:20:37.480 hundred servings in just a couple of hours during the 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:41.280 first sales experiment, very day, very first day. Man, this 0:20:41.359 --> 0:20:44.440 is a good sign. The McCullough's joined forces with Noble 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:48.359 to subsequently open the very first Dairy Queen brick and 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:52.199 mortar store in Joliette, Illinois. I'm just a year or 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:54.320 just a couple of years later, nineteen forty was open 0:20:54.359 --> 0:21:01.000 for business. That's when the company started rapidly expanding through franchising. 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:05.719 And this is all before Ray Kroc and McDonald's. If 0:21:05.760 --> 0:21:08.760 I'm not mistaken, Yeah, I believe that's correct. 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:12.680 And this is also why our question about who invented 0:21:12.760 --> 0:21:15.440 soft serve is similar to the story of so many 0:21:15.520 --> 0:21:21.080 other inventions. There isn't a simple answer that everyone agrees on. Instead, 0:21:21.200 --> 0:21:24.959 there are multiple contenders saying, hey, we were first to 0:21:25.000 --> 0:21:28.240 the post. Carvel and dairy Queen for a while are 0:21:28.400 --> 0:21:32.960 like our coke and pepsi. You know, they have both 0:21:33.040 --> 0:21:39.280 credible claims to pioneering the commercial soft served business and 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:44.680 the machinery and freezing technologies involved. So maybe it's best 0:21:44.720 --> 0:21:49.120 for us ridiculous historians to think of soft serve as 0:21:49.520 --> 0:21:56.440 an as a techno model that emerged through multiple innovations 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:59.960 starting in the nineteen twenties and thirties and just got 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:02.640 more delicious as we go along. 0:22:02.960 --> 0:22:03.720 But you've got to. 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:07.119 Riddle me this here. And we keep saying the phrase 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.040 soft serve, and we talked about the temperature, but what 0:22:10.240 --> 0:22:11.639 actually makes soft serve? 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:13.159 You know, soft? 0:22:13.560 --> 0:22:15.159 That's right, I mean, if you think about it, is 0:22:15.320 --> 0:22:21.720 kind of bordering on milkshake consistency. Like maybe think about 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.000 if you have a milkshake that's a little too hard 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:26.760 to drink through a straw. That's kind of the consistency 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:30.160