Why Gelato and FrappShakes Could Boost your Business Revenue

With summers getting longer and hotter, gelato and FrappShakes are an enticing option for chocolatiers looking to generate extra revenue and extend their client base.

The millennials are at it again…

We all enjoy an ice cream at the seaside, but as well as families and holidaymakers purchasing gelato, it’s the millennials driving sales of gelato and frappés ever higher nationwide. As a generation, they favour stylish, luxury treats and have greater purchasing power.

They are seeking experiential moments in food, and it’s important to the demographic that those foods look good enough to get a like or two on Instagram.

On top of that, a 2021 study quantified that ice cream sales in the UK have steadily increased to over £1.3 million after the summer of 2021, highlighting that the total volume of ice cream sold exceeds 400,000 metric tons.

It’s also been found that ice cream sales have “exploded”, with indulgent lines being the biggest winners.

To gauge just how popular indulgent, chocolatey ice cream has become, you need only look at Magnum or Hotel Chocolat, for instance; as of February 2021, Magnum’s overall revenue was up from £38.4 million, to £207.4 million.

Of course, both aforementioned companies are huge international sellers, but, our point is that the market is there, and it’s huge.

All this means that serving gelato and frappés can have serious money-making potential, and what’s more, doing so requires only minimum staffing and can slot easily into an existing chocolate business.

The Trials and Triumphs of Gelato

Traditionally, ice cream and gelato makers have struggled to create a satisfyingly chocolatey gelato.

Due to the cocoa butter content in chocolate, the process of using it in ice cream was challenging, to say the least, and so necessitated the use of cocoa powder to achieve the chocolate flavour instead.

After years of experimenting and refining, in 2018, Belgian chocolate manufacturer, Callebaut, succeeded in producing the first complete gelato bases containing actual chocolate – typically 60%.

In tandem with ChocoGelato, Callebaut also developed ChocoBase. A range of complete bases containing less chocolate but they’re designed to be compatible with your chocolate of choice.

So, for the regular customers who return to you again and again because of their love for your house chocolate, the technology of ChocoBase allowed an extension of that offering into gelato form.

For those new customers who find and love you through your gelato, offering them the same flavour in chocolate form is the logical next step.

Tell me, what’s your flavour?

If you wish to serve flavours other than chocolate, the world is your [wafer] oyster.

Enticed by the exciting prospect for our chocolatier community, we grabbed ourselves some samples and invited our visiting customers to learn more about gelato.

We tested everything from high quality strawberry, rum and raisin and triple caramel flavours to black sesame and yuzu, matcha, lime and cactus.

And we didn’t receive a single negative comment.

You can make your gelato offering as simple or as innovative as you please - talk about versatility!

Free-from, and suitable for nearly everyone

And then there’s the question of ‘how to satisfy what has been the fastest growing market sector in food?’

The number of vegans in the UK has grown by 300% in the last decade, so again, this is an increasingly lucrative market to tap into.

Rather than the obligatory token-sorbet, Callebaut was one step ahead, and included four ChocoGelato base mixes that are suitable for vegans within the original range.

Follow the money

Having started this article with the word, ‘revenue’, you are likely to be wondering about return of investment.

Well, take a look at this…

And FrappShakes?

Well, for a start, what is a FrappShake?

A FrappShake is somewhere between an ice-blended frappé and the ever-popular super-thick milkshake.

They are a delicious and refreshing treat that, again, hold huge appeal for the younger market, who often pick up drinks and snacks on the go, or who consume them socially, as some lifestyle trends move increasingly away from social settings where alcohol is served.

Industry leaders indicate that the frappé market has doubled in the last three years and has an expected growth of 25% in the next three.

Flavour options are again unlimited, from rich chocolate to mango and passionfruit.

With the gelato and iced drinks markets only looking set to grow in coming years, and the popularity of these products all year round (Scotland has a thriving ice cream market, for example!), adding such revenue streams to your existing chocolate business this summer might just be the booster you always wanted.