Gelato is only as good as the freezer holding it. Texture, scoopability and the way a tub looks under glass all come down to steady, purpose-built cold — and to picking the right format for where you actually sell.
Scooping or selling packaged
Scooping cabinets are built to hold gelato at serving consistency and present it to the customer. Packaged ice cream is a different job: it wants colder, harder storage and merchandising by the door. The two are not interchangeable, and a cabinet chosen for one does the other badly.
The temperature that keeps gelato scoopable
The scooping and display freezers here work around −24 to −14 °C — a band chosen so product stays properly frozen without going so hard that a scoop becomes a workout. Mobile units run a little warmer, around −16 °C, which suits service straight from the cart. If you need long-term frozen storage rather than serving cold, that belongs in chest freezers.
Lids, glass and what the customer sees
Glass-lid cabinets sell the product — curved and flat glass, single or twin lids depending on width. Solid lids hold temperature better and cost less to run, which suits back-of-house or packaged stock. In a parlour or a kiosk, visibility usually wins: people buy the colour they can see.
Fixed or mobile
Alongside fixed cabinets, this range covers mobile carts and trolleys around 90 to 110 litres — push carts, bike-wheel and beach formats — for events, terraces and seasonal pitches. A parlour with a summer terrace often runs both: a fixed cabinet inside and a cart that goes where the crowd is.
Sizing by flavour count, not litres
The practical unit is the pan, not the litre: decide how many flavours you want visible at once, then find the cabinet that holds them. Too many pans in too small a cabinet is how flavours end up in the back, and a flavour in the back may as well not exist. For the wider dessert workflow, see ice cream and frozen.
