Custom Ice Cream Toppings

The Beginning

How did Rocky Toppers become a custom ice cream toppings company? Well, it was a bright sunny day on Rocky Top. Dhruv and his friend Haddy were craving ice cream in the sweltering hot weather. They decided to visit the local ice cream shop to enjoy a cold dessert. Dhruv and Haddy always try to try something new every time they go get ice cream. However, there were no new flavors this time around. Instead, they decided to see if there were any new toppings. To their disappointment, there was nothing new. In fact, they realized that it was the same ice cream toppings the other ice cream shop down the road had. Actually, they realized that it was the same basic toppings that almost every ice cream shop carried. This fostered their curiosity and they began wondering how every ice cream shop and creamery could have the same toppings.

Why ice cream toppings?

While they were enjoying their ice cream, the manager of the shop walked out and struck up a conversation with them. Haddy then asked how they get their toppings. They said that the employees of the shop prepare the toppings themselves by crushing cookies and candies. It began to make sense why toppings were the same throughout stores as consumers typically resort to their safe options. However, Haddy and Dhruv were even more surprised that toppings were made and not produced in bulk. Was the money saved on the additional labor worth the time that could be saved by a toppings supplier?

Ideation

Dhruv and Haddy began thinking more and more about this. Eventually, they started to wonder if they could develop a business model that relied on ice cream toppings being the unique value proposition. They began asking around local ice cream shops how they made their profits. They realized that ice cream shops could increase their margins on certain products such as custom milkshakes and ice creams by making them unique, which could be done through toppings. Then, they talked to a confectionary and realized that chocolates are easy to mold. So then, the question remained how could they produce custom molds for chocolates on a scale small enough for toppings? 

After reaching a dead-end, they toured the Kao Innovation & Collaboration Studio at the University of Tennessee (UT) and realized that the new mini 3D printing technology could be used to create negatives, which then could be molded through epoxy. Learn more about this process here.

After that, they simply had to melt chocolate into the mold and let it cool. At the same time, Tennessee Football had just defeated Alabama so school spirits were very high. It was then that Dhruv and Haddy realized that UT was opening a creamery soon. They looked more into the creamery and realized that most big universities in the United States had some sort of creamery or ice cream shop. That is when it all clicked. They could start their business by creating unique toppings for university creameries across the nation. And best of all, there is no one else doing this. To commemorate their alma mater and the Knoxville community, they decided to name the company Rocky Toppers. To get started creating your own custom ice cream toppings, visit the Rocky Toppers homepage.