The Izzy Scoop

Last Sunday I heard a story about the Izzy scoop. What is it? It’s a small scoop of another flavor of ice cream added on top of the ice cream ordered to encourage customers to be adventurous and try another flavor. The ordered scoop is a generous serving. Seeing the small scoop perched on top of the order is attention-getting. “Gives ‘em a chance to try something new without committing to a huge portion,” notes Jeff Sommers, who owns Izzy’s with his wife Laura.

Jeff and Laura came up with the Izzy scoop, which is just one of their many successful ideas. Jeff was a middle school teacher, and Laura was an attorney. Eleven years ago, Jeff bought a book on how to make ice cream from amazon.com. He followed that with a two-day workshop, and, four months later, Jeff and Laura started selling ice cream. “We were doing what we knew from our guts,” Jeff states.

Ever since, they constantly dream up new flavors of ice cream which they sell at their store on Marshall Avenue in St Paul, Minnesota. Their ice cream has been proclaimed the best ice cream in the nation by Readers’ Digest and Bobby Flay, Food Network’s toughest critic. Along with the usual flavors, Izzy’s features some very unusual ones: Salt Water, Cranberry, Norwegian Chai, Graham Cracker, Blue Mountain Spice, and Mango Django, to name a few. Mango Django includes honey, balsamic vinegar, poppy seeds, a dash of cayenne pepper, and ground pink peppercorns. It was the Best of Show Winner 2011 at Izzy’s 9th People’s Flavor Awards, an ice cream tasting event.

In 2006, Hot Brown Sugar took the top prize. The idea came from Jane Carlson, an Izzy’s customer. It features brown sugar burnt caramel ice cream with praline pecans toasted in cayenne pepper. “Wow! It just tastes so great!” Jane responded the first time that she sampled her idea.

Izzy’s uses this contest to solicit ideas for new ice cream flavors from its customers. The rest of this year’s winners include Upside Down Delight by William Turner, a vanilla ice cream with crushed pineapple, buttery yellow cake, and caramelized brown sugar; CH-CH-Cherry Bomb by Nicolas Larkins a Japanese plum wine with grenadine-cherry; Slow Your (Nut) Roll by Markda Awada, vanilla ice cream with crushed Pearson's nut roll, caramel, nougat, and fudge swirls; Fruit! Bomb! by Maggie Baxter, lemon flavored ice cream with frozen strawberries and apricots; and Caramel Coffee Swirl by Amelia Odens, caramel ice cream blended with coffee infused cream and a fudge swirl.

Out of its current 120 flavor selection, Izzy’s features thirty-two flavors at any given time, which are listed on its Web site and updated every three minutes. Jeff searches for the finest ingredients to use in creating these ice creams. He and Laura have decided not to expand beyond one store so that they may maintain their high standards of ingredients and flavor.

Through this attitude, Jeff and Laura remind us what is important in business: creating a product or service that our customers want and delivering it consistently. They involve their customers with an annual contest to get new flavor ideas, and then they follow through on their customers’ suggestions. They innovate with these customers’ ideas as well as many of their own. They top this off with an Izzy scoop, giving their customers an opportunity to be adventurous and sample new flavors. Their customer focus is a recipe for success.

How can you use Izzy’s recipe in your business?