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Soft serve is a type of ice cream that is softer and less dense than regular ice creams as a result of air being introduced during freezing. Soft serve ice cream has been sold commercially since the late 1930s in the US.

In the US, soft serve ice cream is not sold prepackaged in supermarkets, but is common at fairs, carnivals, amusement parks, restaurants (especially fast food and buffet), and specialty shops. In Minnesota ice cream shops such as Conny's Creamy Cone and Cup and Cone offer dozens of soft serve flavors, compared to shops like Dairy Queen that only serve chocolate, vanilla and twist flavors. They are able to create many different flavors by blending shots of flavoring into vanilla ice cream. All ice cream must be frozen quickly to avoid crystallization. With soft serve, this is accomplished by a special machine that holds pre-mixed product at a very low, but non-frozen temperature, at the point of sale.

History
Over Memorial Day weekend of 1934, Tom Carvel, the founder of the Carvel brand and franchise, suffered a flat tire in his ice cream truck in Hartsdale, New York. He pulled into a parking lot and began selling his melting ice cream to vacationers driving by. Within two days he had sold his entire supply of ice cream and concluded that both a fixed location and soft (as opposed to hard) frozen desserts were potentially good business ideas. In 1936, Carvel opened his first store on the original broken down truck site and developed a secret soft serve ice cream formula as well as patented super low temperature ice cream machines.

Dairy Queen also claims to have invented soft serve. In 1938, near Moline, Illinois, J. F. McCullough and his son, Alex, developed their soft serve formula. Their first sales experiment was August 4, 1938, in Kankakee, Illinois at the store of their friend, Sherb Noble. Within two hours of the "all you can eat" trial sale, they had dished out more than 1,600 servings — more than one every 4.5 seconds.

During the late 1940s, future UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher worked briefly as a chemist for food manufacturer J. Lyons and Co., at a time when the company had partnered with the United States distributor Mister Softee and was developing a soft-serve recipe that was compatible with the American machines. Thatcher's precise role at Lyons is unclear, but she is reported to have worked on the company's ice cream products, as well as cakes and pies. A common anecdote, probably spread by her political opponents, is that by "inventing" soft serve ice cream, Thatcher "added air, lowered quality and raised profits", used as a metaphor for her policies later as prime minister.

In the 1960s, ice cream machine manufacturers introduced mechanized air pumps into vending machines, providing better aeration.

Characteristics
Soft serve is generally lower in milk-fat (3% to 6%) than ice cream (10% to 18%) and is produced at a temperature of about −4 °C compared to ice cream, which is stored at −15 °C. Soft serve contains air, introduced at the time of freezing. The air content, called overrun, can vary from 0% to 60% of the total volume of finished product. The amount of air alters the taste of the finished product. Product with low quantities of air has a heavy, icy taste and appears more yellow. Product with higher air content tastes creamier, smoother and lighter and appears whiter. The optimum quantity of air is determined by the other ingredients and individual taste. It is generally accepted that the ideal air content should be between 33% and 45% of volume. More than this and the product loses taste, tends to shrink as it loses air and melts more quickly than that with less air.

Some forms of soft serve, like many other processed foods, have palm oil.

All ice cream must be frozen quickly to avoid crystallization. With soft serve, this is accomplished by a special machine at the point of sale. Pre-mixed product (see definitions below) is introduced to the storage chamber of the machine where it is kept at 3 °C. When product is drawn from the draw valve, fresh mix combined with the targeted quantity of air is introduced to the freezing chamber either by gravity or pump. It is then churned and quick frozen and stored until required.

While some machines only dispense one flavor of mix at a time, certain models of soft serve machines have an additional nozzle that dispenses a mixture of two separate flavors simultaneously. This mixture emerges in a distinct swirl pattern. It is classified as its own separate flavor on menus as twist or swirl.

Pre-mix can be obtained in several forms:


 * Fresh liquid that requires constant refrigeration until needed. It can be stored for 5 to 7 days before spoiling by bacterial contamination. Quality can be severely compromised by bacterial contamination and handlers must exercise caution to maintain quality.
 * A powdered mix. This is a dried version of the liquid mix. It has the advantage of easy distribution and can be stored for long periods of time without spoiling. Water must be added prior to being churned and frozen. The disadvantage is that water quality cannot be guaranteed and some operators can put too much water in to make it go further. It also should be refrigerated to 3 degrees Celsius prior to use, as airborne and waterborne bacteria can infect it immediately and can grow quickly if the product is warm. Residual bacteria in the refrigerated storage compartment can also be activated by warm product being introduced.
 * Ultra heat treated mix, a liquid that has been sterilized and packed in sealed, sterile bags. It can last a very long time without refrigeration and can be poured into the soft serve freezer immediately upon opening. However it should be refrigerated to 3 degrees Celsius prior to use for the same reasons outlined above. At the time of opening, quality can be guaranteed and bacterial counts are zero. Where it is available, health authorities consider it the safest form of soft serve mix on the market. It was first developed for commercial use in New Zealand in 1988 in a joint venture between Tatua Foods, a dairy company and Bernie Cook, owner of Blue Boy, a mobile franchise network.

Terminology
Various linguistic communities use various terms to refer to soft-serve ice cream:


 * American ice cream (גלידה אמריקאית, ISO 259: Glīḏåh ʾÅmȩrīqåʾīṯ) is the term used in Israel.
 * Cream ice cream (krémfagylalt) is the term sometimes used in Hungary.
 * Creemee: A term popular in Vermont and other parts of northern New England. Colloquially accepted to have originated in Vermont.
 * Mr Whippy is the term used for soft-serve in the United Kingdom, or a 99 if a chocolate flake is added (99 Flake), especially when sold from an ice cream van.
 * Soft ice cream is sometimes used for soft serve in Greater China., and ) are the Chinese terms used in Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively.
 * Softcream (ソフトクリーム) is used to describe an analogous product in Japan, that can be either savory or sweet, with uniquely Asian flavors such as powdered tea, wasabi, sesame, ume or plum, rose, kabocha or Japanese pumpkin, peach, and grape, among others.
 * Soft ice Softeis (Germany), softijs (Netherlands and Flanders), softis (Norway) is the term used for soft-serve in Norway, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and several other places in Europe.
 * Soft ice cream Gelat tou (Andorra, Catalonia)
 * Softee or softie is the term used for soft-serve in India and Pakistan.
 * Italian ice cream (glace à l'italienne (France), sorvete italiano (Brazil), lody włoskie (Poland)) is the term used in France, Brazil and Poland.
 * Soft ice cream (mjukglass) is the term used for soft-serve in Sweden.
 * Machine ice cream (helado de maquina (Dominican Republic), inghetata la dozator (Romania), сладолед от машина (Bulgaria), παγωτό μηχανής (Greece)) is the term used for soft-serve in the Dominican Republic, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.
 * Semi-frozen (semi-frio) is the term used in Portugal.
 * Soft whip is the term used in Ireland. When served in a cone with a chocolate flake it is commonly referred to as a 99.
 * Candy (with Spanish pronunciation) is the name used in Argentina. It can be found in nearly all ice cream parlors.
 * Merry Cream is the name used in Lebanon.
 * Pehmis, short for pehmytjäätelö (soft ice cream) is a genericized trademark of Nestlé used in Finland.
 * 99 technically refers to soft serve ice cream served with a 99 Flake, but soft serve is sometimes simply referred to as "a 99" in Ireland and the UK.