I don’t know, but the cost of a scoop of ice cream in the states is like $4… maybe more. In Amsterdam, you get it everywhere for €1.50 to €2. So, when it is summertime, an ice cream a day is pretty typical consumption. Meaning, it has become more luxury to have ice cream in the states. (Maybe I’m wrong, this is a sense I have, open to correction).
Yeah, I'm still shocked when I want two flavors and they give me those giant balls...
In Italy we have the opposite problem though. Since the scoop size doesn't have a standard, you might find the server in training and get a gelato that's half the size of the one of your friend, which paid half the price
I live in the US and I don't think I've ever paid $4 for a scoop of ice cream in the US, but I haven't bought a scoop in the last two months, so perhaps the recent supply chain/inflation issues have happened.
There is one place I know that charges $4 for what they call a single scoop, but it is about 3x bigger than any scoop elsewhere, and it's a pricey place in general ($8.50 for a malt).
It depends on where you go. It could cost half that if you went to, like, thrifty ice cream instead of what I'm guessing was a Salt and Straw. To say nothing of the men with bells selling icecream all over LA county on a given day...
The grocery store is always going to be cheaper. $4 is the low end of a single scoop in the bay area. And not for some hipster, plant-based organic ice cream either, this is at a regular parlor like Fenton's.
At the Baskin Robbins closet to SF (Daly City) a single scoop is $3.59. After tax that's pretty close to $4 for the most chain-est ice cream I could think of. (The DQ doesn't have photos of their menu on Google maps).
Dairy Queen doesn't serve ice cream. Not being snobbish or pedantic here – soft serve is a separate kind of product. Dairy Queen doesn't call it ice cream (probably because it legally cannot be)
Baskin Robbins is by far the most ubiquitous ice cream chain in the Bay Area and a single scoop is right around $3 as of a few months ago.
I’m not sure why you mention Fenton’s. I’m only aware of a single location in Oakland and I would describe it as fairly high-end. Perhaps not “hip,” but definitely very “retro” stylized. Very Instagramable. Long lines.
Hip places charge like $15 for a cup of ice cream and do weird (but tasty) gastronomy gimmicks like liquid nitrogen freezing or maltodextrin usage. You pay more than $4 at normie chains like coldstone.
Coldstone serves 5-12oz plus toppings made and mixed on-premise. Something like a food truck cup or cone is closer to $2. Baskin Robbins is perhaps $3 for a one scoop cone. But like the other user said, many Americans would rather buy a half gallon or gallon from a grocery store or c-store for $5 and eat too much of it. :)
A pint of ben and jerry's has been $5 for me; going up to $6 during supply chain woes.
A good ice cream shop is more like $5, but the cost scaling is weird and you can normally get like 3x more ice cream for 1.2x cost with larger sizes. The scoops are large. Per volume I think its much more expensive in other countries personally.
You can buy ice cream by the gallon (4.5 litres!!) in the US. It can’t be that expensive! In the UK half a litre (a pint) is considered a lot of ice cream.
You can, but most people don't unless it's for a party or something. Even then, it's almost always by the half gallon (which, of course, isn't actually a full half gallon any more) or pint. The latter becoming more common of late.
In the gallon size that is probably true. Nobody really buys it in that size unless they're feeding a gaggle of children at a birthday party who don't give two shits about how awful the ice cream quality is.
Personally, I prefer my ice cream to have exactly four ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, cocoa. The end. Nothing else. I've had to switch brands a couple times because they cave to pressure to make their chocolate ice cream more creamy. No! I like it a bit dry, it's got cocoa in it! LOL
Not in chocolate ice cream, no. At least, not in the kinds I've liked best. And, I guess, I don't really like eggs in vanilla either. French vanilla just tastes off to me.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that my preferred ice cream style is "philadelphia style"
