A Premium Ice Cream Brand Was Created With Help From A NASA Engineer

Freezer-burned ice cream can put a damper on anyone's night, especially if it's all you've thought about since you sat down at the dinner table. Robyn Sue Fisher, the founder of Smitten Ice Cream, wanted to address the problem of icy, unappetizing ice cream by going back to its source: the freezing process. Though it took her several years and several failed attempts, Fisher introduced the nation to nitrogen ice cream before the craze even struck.

Fisher wanted to create an ice cream product that eliminated emulsifiers and other additives (which contribute to shelf life but degrade overall quality) by decreasing the size of the ice crystals, ultimately resulting in a product with fewer ingredients and a smoother, creamier texture. As an MBA student from Stanford, Fisher experimented with existing machine parts and a tank of liquid nitrogen to practice freezing ingredients. She eventually recruited help from a former NASA engineer and a pastry chef to perfect not only the ice cream's formula, but the machine that creates it. With a little elbow grease and a whole lot of science, Fisher and her team invented the "Brrr Machine," the first of its kind to whip up Smitten Ice Cream, otherwise known as the freshest ice cream in San Francisco.

The general idea behind Fisher's Brrr Machine was to use liquid nitrogen (at a staggering -321 degrees Fahrenheit) with rotating mixers to turn simple ingredients into the perfect cup of ice cream. Liquid nitrogen, which isn't necessarily dangerous to eat if handled by professionals, is added to the Brrr Machine, which utilizes two mixing spirals to constantly keep the ice cream in motion. The process once required a human's touch, but it's now less reliant on human interaction to create a perfect batch in only about 90 seconds. Brrr Machines are the "only sophisticated cryogenic-enabled ice cream machine of its kind," according to Smitten's website, and are protected by eight different patents.

When Smitten Ice Cream began, Fisher touted her Brrr Machine around the streets of San Francisco, encouraging patrons to try the never-before-seen invention. Today, it's a premium ice cream brand with an entrepreneur who credits her success to not spending "too much time looking too far ahead ... just [thinking] about what [she] needed to do to get to that next step," she told Forbes. Given the special process required to whip up a batch of Smitten Ice Cream, the brand is exclusively available on the West Coast, in California. At stores, customers can see the Brrr Machines hard at work making flavors such as Bee Sting and Brookies 'N Cream or even limited-edition flavors such as Summer Sweet Corn and the boozy Sonoma Rosé ice cream.