Wow, I am super impressed with this machine!
I processed the lychee and peach base this evening. I was targeting a frozen temp of around -15C in my blast chiller but because I wasn't paying attention I ended up pulling the peach at -26C and the lychee at -19C (temp difference cause the lychee was started at room temp)
The machine is extremely loud, louder than a vitamix on max. It has two steps to the processing, first, for what felt like 2 minutes, the blade shaves each layer of the frozen product. After completion it more slowly climbs back to the top, I suspect to aid in emulsifying everything and helping it cream up.
My peach sorbet went from -26C to -20C after processing. It is designed to be served around -18C so this worked well
It was incredibly smooth after just one process. There was actually no perceptible ice crystals. This far surpasses my cheap cuisinart ice-30. I am incredibly happy with the final product. I have no doubt it will be fine in my -18C freezer considering the texture at -20C.
Now, for the tinned lychees. The lychees had 15.7 brix. I preblended but did not pass through a fine mesh strainer. They were processed at -19C and came out at -12C after a single process, which was a good serving temp considering the composition.
The texture was very smooth but there was a few small perceptible ice crystals, comparable to what I get when I make sorbets in Cuisinart Ice 30. I suspect it might harden up a bit once it chills in my home freezer to -18C. Overall, it is very passable, I would serve this to anyone anywhere.
The only downsides of the machine are: 1) Very loud, I might have to put it in the garage 2) The walls and base of the pint containers are not processed, you have to avoid them when scooping out so that you do not get ice. There is about a 2mm wall of ice around the whole thing. Considering the price of this machine compared to a pacojet I have 0 complaints. 3) There is a good bit of air incorporated into the base, probably about 20%, some may like this, some may not. There are a few pockets of air so depending on how refined you want your serving presentation to be you may want to push everything down a bit first so there's no holes in your scoops
I think this machine has serious potential to take over the home ice cream market
Finally, I have no idea what the difference between the ice cream, sorbet, and gelato buttons is. Can anyone help me with this? I processed the peach on ice cream and lychee on sorbet, sorbet might have been a bit faster blade spinning? I would have to do a side by side of the same flavor to actually figure it out
