• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Skip to navigation
Close Ad

The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Events
  • Newsletter
  • Connect
    • Custom Events
    • Slack
    • RSS
    • Send us a Tip
  • Advertise
  • Consulting
  • About
The Spoon
  • Home
  • Podcasts
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Advertise
  • About

Kickstarter: CUPPLE Churns Ice Cream on Your Countertop

by Chris Albrecht
September 4, 2020September 4, 2020Filed under:
  • Funding
  • Next-Gen Cooking
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

One of the wedding gifts I got lo’ those many years ago was an ice cream maker. Between the heating of the cream, getting the ingredients just right, storing the churn bowl in the freezer overnight, we used the machine all of two times before deciding ice cream was just much easier and tastier, to buy it from the store.

So I’m curious about the CUPPLE, currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter, which promises to let me make fresh-churned ice cream directly on my countertop anytime I want.

Think of the CUPPLE as a Keurig for ice cream. You put a shelf-stable cup of base ingredients in the countertop machine and push a button. The CUPPLE automatically chills and churns the base to produce ice cream and sorbet in roughly three minutes.

The advantages of this system, according to the CUPPLE creators, is that you get better ice cream because it isn’t stored frozen for weeks (the self-contained ingredient cups don’t need to be frozen), and you get a denser, more velvety ice cream because air isn’t whipped into the ice cream.

The CUPPLE has dual chambers to churn two servings at once. The machine itself is roughly a foot and a half long by 14 inches wide and nearly a foot high. Initial flavors being offered are Belgian chocolate, Madagascar vanilla, traditional cookies, Chilean raspberry, Colombian passion fruit and Bengal mango.

Backers can pick up a CUPPLE machine for €250 (~$300 USD, plus $44 shipping to the U.S.), which comes with 24 cups of ice cream and is supposed to ship in June of 2021. Additional cups can be purchase in multi-packs that cost between €2.5 ($2.95) to €2.10 ($2.48) per cup. The CUPPLE has already blown past its Kickstarter goal of $47,000 to raise more than $86,000, with 12 days still left to go in its campaign.

As much as I like ice cream, I don’t think CUPPLE will count me as a backer. First, that’s a lot of money for a single-use device (okay, dual use if you count sorbet as a separate thing). But more importantly, I’m not a huge fan of proprietary, Keurig-style machines. What happens if CUPPLE shuts down? What can I do with it then if there are no cups to re-order?

Additionally, as with any Kickstarter hardware project, there are concerns about whether the product will ship on time. There’s a big leap between building a prototype and building at scale (just ask Cinder and Rite Press). Plus in the Risks section of the campaign, the company says that its still perfecting the sterilization of its ice mix packaging and may only ship sorbets at first.

I’d love for a company to create an easier (and affordable) way to for at-home consumers to make ice cream, but I don’t think CUPPLE is the solution for me.


Related

Get the Spoon in your inbox

Just enter your email and we’ll take care of the rest:

Find us on some of these other platforms:

  • Apple Podcasts
  • Spotify
Tagged:
  • CUPPLE
  • ice cream
  • Kickstarter

Post navigation

Previous Post El Pollo Loco Revamps Digital Rewards, Launches GPS-Enables Curbside Pickup
Next Post Food Tech News: Lettuce Glow, Plus More Expansions for Food Tech Companies

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jerry says

    September 5, 2020 at 12:57 am

    Nothing new here and this proprietary approach from a small undercapitalized company is bound to be a big failure. Wim tried this concept with VC backing and failed – they had a much better looking machine which made single serve frozen yogurt using proprietary pods. Much more promising is LG’s Snow White pod based single serve frozen dessert machine – good luck competing against that if it makes it to market!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Get The Spoon in Your Inbox

The Spoon Podcast Network!

Feed your mind! Subscribe to one of our podcasts!

Don’t Forget to Tip Your Robot: Survey Shows Diners Not Quite Ready for AI to Replace Humans
A Week in Rome: Conclaves, Coffee, and Reflections on the Ethics of AI in Our Food System
How ReShape is Using AI to Accelerate Biotech Research
How Eva Goulbourne Turned Her ‘Party Trick’ Into a Career Building Sustainable Food Systems
Combustion Acquires Recipe App Crouton

Footer

  • About
  • Sponsor the Spoon
  • The Spoon Events
  • Spoon Plus

© 2016–2025 The Spoon. All rights reserved.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.