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I want to dig in the gelato world. To do that, I need an ice cream/gelato machine. Find one!

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1. It shouldn’t be too big (home-use) but also not too small.
2. It should have compressor. I don’t want to freeze the bowl ahead of time.

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No penalty.

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Perfect match gelato machine.

Why gelato? I don’t know. It all started from accidentally finding a gelato recipe book at the Burnaby public library where I dropped by to use the washroom in the super hot summer. After using the washroom, I found that the library was so chill and had a comfy vibe, so I decided to stay a few minutes more.

And then, like magic, I found this book called 'Gelupo Gelato' by Jacob Kenedy. It has this nice cover with a colorful flowing illustration in a style I really like.

I used to do baking a lot, but never thought about making ice cream except the science experiment I did when I was in elementary school, with the salt sprinkled ice bucket and a bowl on top of it containing chocolate milk and sugar. I remember I whisked really hard to make it as soft as possible.

Anyways, I opened the book, and found some ingredients that were not familiar to me: LBG, Dextrose, etc, etc…. and it says I need an ice cream machine? I thought, ‘Hm, I don’t even know where to get those ingredients, so maybe later.’ But still, I really liked the book itself. It explains things quite easily, and graphics are nice. I felt like I might be able to make gelato one day.

After a year, my partner gave me a Ninja Creami. I tried this and that with that unit. Jumping to the result, I didn’t like it. I had to pre-freeze the mixture ‘flat’ so as not to damage the unit, and shaving method along with the slow pre-freeze process caused crystallization, even for a high-fat mixture. There was always an icy crunch in my ice cream. No way this is called ‘Creami’, huh. What happened to that Creami? Well, I sold it.

A year after that, I moved to a new place with a bigger fridge with a built-in ice maker. I thought, ‘Wow, so much ice I can use! I could even make ice cream for fun like I did when I was young.’ And then realized ‘oh wait, ice cream???’

And that is why I started this gelato machine finding.

I want something sturdy and a well-made machine from a reputable company, or at least an established company. The one thing I’ve learned while baking for about 15 years is that equipment is important. I don’t mean it needs to be fancy, but it should be well-made and sturdy (even for affordable ones) so that it lasts longer.

There are two main types of ice cream machines for home-use: the pre-freeze bowl type and the unit with the compressor. I don’t really want to pre-freeze a bowl because it will take up the freezer space. Also, with the pre-freeze bowl type, I can’t make ice cream back-to-back with one unit. So compressor type it is.

I found three options for me: Cuisinart Ice-100, Breville the Smart Scoop, and Musso Mini Lussino. I know there are other options too, but as I mentioned above, I picked established company products as my options. Oh wait, Cuisinart Ice-100 looks ok for its price, but I found it is not available in Canada anymore. Sigh. So only two options left.

Okay, Breville the Smart Scoop looks good. It even has nice convenient features with LED display and speed adjuster. The capacity is 1L and a removable aluminum bowl. My first thought is ‘Hm, more features with extra fancy components mean more potential maintenance problems.’

I’ve had a Breville Barista Pro for 5 years. It’s never been really broken-broken, but paint is falling off, water pressure fluctuates, and most importantly, the group head somehow keeps getting loose when it heats up (probably due to the plastic-y material). So in my book, Breville is mid-tier for home appliances.

So unless I give the Breville one a shot, the only one left is Musso Mini Lussino, and this one looks really nice: stainless steel body, simple operation, and 1.5 quarts capacity. However, it is bulky and pricey… quite pricey… maybe way too pricey?

“If you’re gonna buy that, let me get it for you. I haven’t gotten you a birthday present yet this year,”

my partner said.

👀 → 🫢 → 🤩 → 😘

Wow. No more searching. Case closed!

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• I learned that restaurant equipment and supplies importer/distributor companies exist, and I could also order some as an individual! I ordered my Musso Mini Lussino from Nella Online.
• Carpigiani and Musso are both famous. Carpigiani is mostly focused on commercial use machines although they make some small units, which tend to be expensive for their size. Musso also has both professional units and home-use size machines, and Musso Mini Lussino 4080 is well known as a nice gadget for a home-use gelato machine.
• Some people call the Musso Mini Lussino 4080, the Lello 4080 because it is distributed under the brand name “Lello” in the US.