Episode 26
Sundae Cups
Several American towns claim to be the birthplace of the sundae. Sundaes first appeared in the 1880s, when the sale of ice cream sodas was banned on Sundays. Instead, soda fountain operators poured soda syrup on ice cream, added toppings, and called this new treat the sundae.
Today, ice cream sundaes come pre-made and frozen in individual servings. There's no need to wait. This decadent dessert can be served up in an instant.
At the sundae factory, production starts with something called the white base mix. It's a pasteurized blend of fresh cream, milk, and a variety of sweeteners. A worker adds a blend of yellow coloring to the white base mix, and this takes it from bright white to an off-white. A generous helping of pure vanilla extract lends a distinctive flavor and adds extra color to the cream base. After a final stir, the mix is ready for a freezing process, during which, air will be added to turn the mix into soft ice cream.
It's time to cue the containers. Two at a time, individual-sized sundae cups move forward on the production line. They meet up with the ice cream dispenser. It automatically pumps precise amounts of the soft vanilla ice cream into the cups. It fills the cups to the 3/4 mark, leaving plenty of room for toppings.
It's now time to prepare the next layer of deliciousness: the chocolate fudge sauce. A worker mixes skim milk and sweeteners to a frothy consistency and then adds several large bags of dark rich cocoa. The mixer paddle agitates the ingredients to distribute the cocoa evenly throughout. The chocolate fudge is pumped into a plastic tote to cool overnight. During cooling, the sauce thickens up substantially. It's now a rich chocolate fudge syrup. Velvety smooth, the chocolate syrup flows out of the tote and into a big tank. From there, nozzles dispense the chocolate fudge syrup onto the vanilla ice cream in the cups. Next, a worker pours a liquid topping blend into a high-speed mixer system that beats it to a whipped consistency. Nozzles deposit the whipped topping onto the syrup-covered ice cream. Now it's time to add some chocolate crunch to the smooth, sweet sundae. The system sprinkles semi-sweet chocolate chunks onto the whipped topping. It's the final touch. These single-serving chocolate sundaes have been prepared almost entirely by machines.
A conveyor now sends them through an icy blast of air for a quick freeze. Exiting the freezer, the frozen sundaes travel forward, shielded by overhead guards for food safety reasons. The sundaes funnel into a single file lane. This positions them to receive lids. The lids slide down a chute and land on top of the ice cream sundae cups. Rollers press the lids down on the rims. A revolving apparatus deposits plastic collars around the lids. Moving forward, the machinery sorts the sundae cups in row of two. This allows a robot with suctioning arms to pick up six at a time and pack them into a cardboard box. The boxes travel under and over packing tape to seal the tops and bottoms.
Incredibly, this factory produces 1,440 ice cream sundae cups every 15 minutes. And it's all thanks to the magic of mechanization. This company also produces tubs of flavored ice cream, so there are many mouth-watering choices to be made at dessert time.
