CES 2024: This countertop ice cream maker actually makes good soft-serve

I'm not usually a fan of tech products that claim to be able to make homemade versions of customers' favorite store-bought foods. Sorry to companies like SodaStream, but the end products just never come out tasting right.

But then I came across ColdSnap at CES 2024.

ColdSnap is a countertop ice cream maker that claims to make the "creamiest, best tasting ice cream available anywhere." You simply insert a "pod," which looks like a slim can of Coca-Cola, containing one of an assortment of available ice cream flavors into the machine and shortly after, soft-serve ice cream is yours for the eating.

When I first saw ColdSnap, I did not get it. There was a huge line of people around the company's booth because, of course, free food will always attract a crowd. But I've been there and done that when it comes to ice cream makers. 

My mom has a "Ninja CREAMi" at her home, a different countertop ice cream maker, which costs less than $200. On visits, I've had Ninja CREAMi soft-serve and it's good, but it's no replacement for real soft-serve like you get at Carvel or Mr. Softee. It's just not "soft" enough. In my experience, Ninja CREAMi ice cream comes out too icy and not creamy enough. I expected ColdSnap to be a bit like that.

I decided to see what the hubbub surrounding ColdSnap was about. And, of course, yeah, the free food.

I was wrong. ColdSnap ice cream actually had the consistency of real soft-serve like you'd get straight from your favorite ice cream truck or soft-serve shop. The ice cream was creamy soft-serve and it was delicious. It seems like its actually possible to replicate store-bought food exactly how it was intended to taste using a homemade ice cream machine.

ColdSnap does come with some issues and unanswered questions. Storing the coke can-sized pods will be less than ideal, and when it comes to disposal, will cities add them to recycling programs for other, similar pods? But the biggest question is: when will it actually be available to buy? ColdSnap actually debuted way back at CES 2021 and stole the show-related headlines then. But the company seemingly disappeared without ever releasing a commercial product.

At CES 2024, ColdSnap was all the rage once again. But the company was showing off a larger machine that they said they don't want to sell to customers. A ColdSnap representative told me they're looking to create a smaller version within the next year to put on the market.

Personally, I don't think the current ColdSnap product is that big. It's a kitchen countertop food maker. These products can be rather large and consumers usually don't mind. And then there's the question of will this smaller ColdSnap device still be able to make creamy soft-serve ice cream? Or will downsizing the product mean the output quality is icier in consistency, putting ColdSnap more in line with the previously mentioned Ninja CREAMi? That would certainly be a huge disappointment.

But, I guess we're closer to finding out than we were when ColdSnap debuted at CES three years ago.