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Solar Scoops, Spud Mud & Gelato Masters
The Broken Cone: Ice Cream & Gelato Newsletter
The Broken Cone
September 01, 2025
Solar Scoops, Spud Mud & Gelato Masters
This is the Ice Cream & Gelato newsletter. Essential updates for Scoopers, Chefs & Entrepreneurs.
Every Monday we bring curated News and spotlight everything from shops, flavours, marketing, operations, and founder stories. Not just sweet talk
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Estimated read time: 3 minutes 41 seconds
NEWS
Curated global Ice Cream & Gelato news
Spud “Mud” has arrived
Potato Ice cream has arrived - all thanks to the vision of a student at Otago Polytechnic in New Zealand. Tasked with finding an innovative way to deal with food waste, they came up with "Mud", an Ice Cream made with surplus Agria potatoes from a local producer. Using potato milk, dark chocolate, and choc-coated chip clusters, “Mud” is dairy and gluten-free and now available locally at Patti's and Cream's locations. Watch customer reactions here. Deep dive the original Polytechnic article here.
Solar Scoops
Somerset Ice Cream Entrepreneur David Baker is transitioning his business Styles Ice Cream to use as much Solar power as possible. He previously operated from Diesel vans at local festivals. This didn’t go down well with organisers and customers. He pivoted and created the world’s first ‘battery and solar powered ice cream van’. Now he is extending solar to production facilities. Baker told the BBC that electricity bills could decrease from £72k to £10k annually if he hits his solar targets.
Gelato wraps at Hollywood
Over the weekend Hollywood hosted the North American heat of the Gelato World Masters Championships. 10 Gelato chefs competed for the chance to head to Italy to compete for the World Champs crown in 2026. Juan Anthonio Coyoli Maciel of Super Creamy Ice Cream (Mexico) won with his flavour “Lisi”; pumpkin sweet, variegato of coffee, cinnamon butter, rum, and sprinkled pumpkin seeds. Competitors were judged by both industry professionals and members of the public. Four criteria were used to judge: Flavour, Structure, Creativity and Presentation. Watch the moment he won here.
SPOTLIGHT
Shops, Flavours, Marketing, Operations, Stories. This week:
PEACHES
Making Peach Ice Cream, what the greats are doing and what next.
Peaches: A fuzzy-skinned stone fruit. Usually harvested May-Sept, available fresh seasonally, frozen or canned year-round. Used in Jams, Salsas, Glazes, Cocktails, and Puddings. Though there are some quirky things being done - the Peach cobbler, a classic dessert in the Southern states of U.S., involves biscuit, batter, and dumpling crust.
Peach Ice Cream 101
Steve Christensen from Scoop School shows us three ways to make Peach Ice Cream (and deal with the issue of water content). Great watch:
No time? Short summary: He uses three different types of peach, with the following technique for each:
Fresh: Macerate with sugar overnight to draw out water.
Frozen: Same as above.
Canned: Less sugar needed since already in syrup.
Key Takeaway: Sugar maceration pulls moisture from fruit, preventing ice crystals -regardless of the peach type.
What the greats are doing
Chicho gelato (Perth, Australia) have done Peach Lychee Tea. A Peach and lychee sorbet, blended with organic black tea (from local company teassential). Vegan, Dairy and Gluten Free (have a look at Chicho’s amazing website).
Sydney Stalwarts Gelato Messina have done Peach Melva (a play on the classic Peach Melba - a dessert created for an Aussie Opera singer staying in London around 1892)
Peach sorbet & vanilla gelato with raspberry jam:
What next?
Gin? Wild Peach Dry Gin by Nil Desperandum Distillery. Made with wild Australian peach known as Quandong. Give the scoops an edge?
Hot Sauce? Jalapeño & Peach Hot Sauce by Fancy Hank’s. Hot and sweet?
Bieber? Peaches
Quote of the week
You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there's still going to be someone who hates peaches
That's all for this week folks.
Next week → We bring the latest news and spotlight an Aussie Gelato Giant.
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