Designing an Ice Cream Flavor: Crafting an Adventure
Delicious ice cream is a student favorite on campuses all over the world, and new ice cream flavors are routinely introduced to campus communities. I spoke with BYU Dining Service’s Executive Chef Mr. John McDonald (known as Chef John) to uncover the design principles behind the development of flavors including campus favorite Graham Canyon and new introduction Peach My Gospel. I discovered that making ice cream is all about crafting an adventure.
As I sat down in Chef John’s office, I couldn’t help but notice the ubiquitous presence of new products that had recently arrived for testing. As we spoke, I learned that a critical part of their ice cream design depends on working with vendors and sampling new products. The flavor development team members, led by Chef John, solicit new ideas and flavors from current suppliers. “We try to find trends with other companies and brands,” he said, “and then try to incorporate those into the environment here with the student base and community.” Following important design principles, Chef John recognizes that strong designs have meaning, and innovative designs capitalize on that meaning while mixing in new and exciting aspects.
Practical designs are rarely universal, and it is often most effective to have specific designs oriented towards specific groups of people. Referencing the new Peach My Gospel flavor, Chef John explained, “It’s a flavor not everyone would like, but other people jump after it.” By targeting specific tastes and textures, ice cream development intentionally steers away from pleasing everyone with just one flavor. The most popular brands and products are so successful because of the clientele they target (check out this article out for more information on branding).
Such reasoning is the impetus of having many flavors. We discussed how Roasted Almond Fudge was a classic flavor more popular with alumni. Other flavors, like Cougar Tracks and Peach My Gospel, are seasonal and short term, engineered for “attracting a new excitement level.” Having a broad range of flavors stabilizes ice cream demand, ensuring smooth and consistent production.
The ice cream flavor design team members do not put limits on the ideas they entertain and consider. Chef John described the critical nature of constantly seeking new ideas, saying that “We do a lot of brainstorming. We have people pushing all kinds of ideas all the time.” He shared that Blue Goggles was at first a suggestion from BYU Sports Nation that eventually went into production. Chef John loves exploring exciting options for “individuals who live to eat” new flavors. With every new addition, those individuals can “have a different adventure.” This underscores how critical teams are to making great products.
Inevitably, our conversation turned to Graham Canyon, a top ice cream flavor for many years. The idea for a graham-based ice cream was first introduced to the local creamery through a supplier almost 20 years ago. “We get flavor profiles from companies,” Chef John said, “and that was the start of most of our flavors.” After the dairy department had experimented with a sample, they modified the prototype repeatedly. When texture, taste, and appearance are all “well represented together,” a characteristic of successful flavors, the ice cream has a chance to be a hit.
Iteration, sampling, feedback, teamwork… it’s all part of the design process, even for ice cream!
I was fascinated to learn that companies and production facilities often work together to create new concoctions. In speaking about making a new flavor, Chef John told me, “A lot of the time it’s a flavor you’re working with them on, like if we’re looking for a particular mint flavor, and they’ll work with you in sending different samples to different combinations of blends to make it the right fit that you’re looking for.” Because the flavor is foundational for the whole ice cream, that’s where the brunt of the focus is placed, and iterations are common. In-shane-ly Chocolate, a recent flavor made to commemorate C. Shane Reese as the university’s new president, went through “eight or nine iterations” before the design team was satisfied, Chef John explained. It was apparent that successful design begins with understanding iterations and changes are positive and important during the development process.
Our conversation also highlighted the importance of product suppliers for the design process. Chef John and his team routinely attend new product shows and work closely with a variety of vendors, prioritizing equipment and viability: “The big parameter is equipment. It really boils down to if we have the right equipment to do specific things,” Chef John said. Specific ice-cream mix-ins or variegates (liquidized flavors such as chocolate, marshmallow, caramel, and others) can be complicated to add to ice cream, so the design process focuses on what is realistic. This concept of restraint ensures product viability over time.
Chef John taught me that “anything you create is an art form.” As such, taking feedback is vital to long-term success. Usually, new flavors are compared to the consumption rates of other flavors to assess popularity, and flavors become long-term rather than seasonal if they rank in the top 15 or 20. In-shane-ly Chocolate, for example, has been widely successful, and “it rivals some of the top five flavors.” Other times, feedback is supply-chain based. “Sometimes you can’t get ingredients,” Chef John explained, “so we can’t produce that flavor!” In any industry, acquiring relevant feedback is a game-changer.
With Chef John’s insight, I realized that making ice cream involves much more of the design process than I had thought. Generating ideas, iterating different concepts, recognizing feasibility in projects, promoting feedback, and working directly with suppliers are all ways to augment the design process. From building bridges and satellites to painting and creative writing, design is instrumental in the success of companies, and a well-designed product will feel like an exciting adventure for consumers and producers alike.
