tesg's guide to big chain road food consumption

CHAIN -- Dippin' Dots
Owner -- Privately held
Primary Operating Region -- Nationwide, if you know where to look
Number of Locations -- Over 600 (2004)

I like it cold.  My favorite time of the year is Halloween through New Years Day.  Going to Florida?  I'll be in North Dakota.  Putting your pop in the fridge?  Mine's in the freezer, and will be until just before it goes slushy.  Want some ice cream?  I have a colder option for you.

Dippin' Dots was the idea of a cryogenics expert named Curt Jones.  Jones utilized liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze ice cream into round little pellets.  Jones patented the idea, opened a store, and there you go.  Dippin' Dots were unleashed on an unsuspecting public in 1988.

The dots themselves resemble tiny Styrofoam packing beads.  The white ones even have the same sheen to them.  Pop a spoonful in your mouth and you get a really cold sensation that starts out with a sticky frost feeling, then as the dots melt, the flavor grows.  Pop them in your mouth and immediately chomp down, and you'll know exactly the shape of the fillings in your mouth.  It's a different, somewhat fun treat to be sure.  Taste-wise, well, it's ice cream.

There's negatives to this though.  First, it's pricey for what effectively is basic ice cream in an unusual format.  Plus, no matter how careful you are with your spoon, dots are always escaping for the floor.  I left lots of dots on the floor of the mall while walking and eating.  This is bad if you're playing "Where's Waldo" and you're Waldo.  Opponents just follow the trail of melting dots.  Plus the mall gets all unsightly, even more so than it does when the teenagers get out of school and...well...be teenagers.  Speaking of teenagers, remember the fun you had as a kid firing pellets at people by spitting them through a straw?  I wonder...

None of this matters because kids think they're neato, and Dippin' Dots is good about placing locations in places where the novelty factor is high.  The stores are largely in malls, stadiums, fair midways, zoos, museums, cinemas, and amusement parks.  The whole concept is pretty simple to operate.  Even some other fast food locations have tried adding Dippin' Dots to their menu as a dessert item.

You can also order large boxes of Dippin' Dots off their website for a ridiculous amount of money.  The packages are designed more for parties and such.  Imagine your floor and carpet after a slew of small children have been running around with bowls of these.

I say stick to the mall.

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