Spice up your ice

Scoop. Slap. Crush. Knead. Scoop. Toss. Catch. Throw. Catch. Think someone is in a fight? Not at all. It's just a typical serving session at the Cold Stone Creamery — often accompanied with a song.

Hours of practice

The whole process seems easy but is actually not. The staff spend many hours perfecting tosses and catches.

If you've witnessed one of these, I am sure it has put a smile on your face. What's probably more interesting than the ice-cream itself is the process they use to serve it. Something they call the X-factor.

Ice-cream is scooped with two “spades'' — not your conventional cupped scoop — slapped on to a frozen granite slab, kneaded with toppings of your choice, scooped up again with some fanfare and served either in a cone or a waffle cup.

“The X-factor is like a tagline for the products we carry. We at Cold Stone believe in making people happy. Even though our ice-cream makes people happy, we wish to do extra so that it makes them smile. What they buy is this, the X-factor, and get an ice-cream free with it,'' says Kewal Mehta, country manager, Cold Stone Creamery.

Creative creations

The specially trained staff transform a scoop of simple ice-cream into a “creation'' with “mix-ons'' ranging from sweets, brownies, biscuits and chocolates to nuts and fresh fruits.

The customer can create his personalised scoop or ask for a Cold Stone original creation, Mehta says.

“Fun and entertainment is the core character of the Cold Stone Creamery culture and concept,'' Mehta says. “Creating their own ‘flavour' is fun for the customers. Say, you would like to mix chocolate ice-cream with a whole lot of M&M's and sprinkle berries and give it a name you wish to.

“The staff are hired through a special audition where we judge not just their singing abilities but their confidence, how they perform and behave with customers, their zeal and zing to perform,'' Mehta adds.

Love for perfection

Created in 1988 by Donald and Susan Sutherland, two ice-cream lovers who couldn't find the perfect ice-cream, Cold Stone Creamery today has franchises in 18 countries and is just about two years old in Dubai.

And it's not only the staff who are peppy and fresh at the store. “The ice-cream is made on location and is just enough to serve customers for two days, thus keeping our servings fresh,'' Mehta says.

I watched them create a “Manjarilicious'' scoop for me. With my mocha, nuts and berries creation, I sat watching, along with those passing by, the staff conduct a practice session with a fake scoop of ice-cream, loud music and lots of clapping and singing.