Flavors Uncovered! A Look at Who Makes Them and from What

Part of the Sub Zero Ice Cream appeal is knowing exactly what goes into your food. While our bases and mix-ins are straightforward, the bottled flavors might seem a little suspect. After all, how many places have you gone to where the syrups are as synthetic as your great-aunt’s hairspray? Rest assured, we’ve selected a supplier that uses the highest quality ingredients possible for a nominal price, enabling us to give you the best product for a lower cost. We order our the majority of our flavor products from Flavors Gourmet.

Flavors Gourmet is based in Lehi, UT and ships its products throughout the United States to grocery stores, restaurants and stay at home chefs. They buy spices and extracts in bulk (like 4 galleons of Vanilla) and then break them down into whatever quantity customers want. Which means, whether you’re a restaurant owner or just cook for your family, the cost stays low. Not only that, but we like their flexibility. They understand that palates are not only unique to individuals, but to regions as well. Did you know that the East Coast has a different taste profile than the West? For example, East Coasters prefer coffee flavored products and West Coasters, mocha. This flavor sensitivity is why we have Flavors Gourmet custom make each flavoring syrup at Sub Zero in order to fit our taste-bud’s high expectations.

Of course, when most of us hear the word syrup, we cringe. What kind of mutated chemical sweetener has crawled into that bottle and found its way into our ice cream? Rest assured, we went right to the source, interviewing a member of the Flavors Gourmet team and inspecting the production facilities (which, by the way, smells like a candy store!) so that we could share what we’ve found with you.

When you choose a flavor to go into your ice cream, what’s pumped into the base is a syrup, specially crafted by Flavors Gourmet, that has been taste-tested by Jerry Hancock, the founder of Sub Zero Ice Cream. Some members of the Flavors Gourmet team are food scientists and, using their expertise, Flavors Gourmet is always coming up with new flavors for Jerry to try, like “Fire and Ice”, “Blueberry” and “Tiger’s Blood”. The syrup contains sugar (less than 5g per single pump), flavor extract (like the stuff you bake with), preservatives (usually sodium benzoate and citric acid) and/or a small amount of artificial coloring. That’s it. No high-fructose corn syrup. No synthetic sugars. And, as any food enthusiast will tell you, it’s the simple stuff that tastes best.

So, why Flavors Gourmet? Their productions process allows Sub Zero to control the ingredients from the base up (which is flexibility we like). The majority of our flavor bases are made from sugar, water, sodium benzoate and citric acid. Flavors Gourmet makes a 55 gallon batch of syrup base in four hours.

P.S, we also asked where the sugar came from: Western Sugar.

Then the components needed to give each syrup its unique flavor is measured by hand for each individual bottle . These flavor extracts come from Virginia Dare, the second largest flavor house in the world, established in 1835.

The final product is what allows us to make customizable ice cream right before our customers’ eyes in virtually any location.