IAAPA has already wrapped up for the year, but I can’t stop hoping that some of the delicious sweets and nifty treats that were offered at the convention are going to show up in one of the Orlando theme parks. While I’m sure they won’t, one can hope.
Dippin Dots
Dippin Dots have always been found from park to park, but it seems now that others are trying to replicate what they’re doing and compete with them, they’re looking for new and inventive ways to create dots.
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Could you imagine drinking Dippin Dots coffee? The company now offers a variety of coffee flavors: caramel, mocha, and vanilla. Dippin Dots is also trying to get into the alcohol market as well with Margaritas, Pina Coladas, and Daquris. The concept is to mix it with your favorite liquor (sorry, gotta be 21, kids).
Various Coffee Dippin Dots (click photo for a larger view)
Spudniks
This was by far my favorite food featured at IAAPA (besides Mini Melts). Spudniks is all about potato chips. The chips come in a wide variety of flavors. I tried the Buffalo and Blue Cheese flavored because I’m a huge fan of buffalo wings. They were delicious, but they were very hot! They seemed to be a hit at IAAPA with a pretty long line.
Spudnicks chips bag (click photo for larger view)
Mini Melts
Mini Melts is one of Dippin Dots competitors. Their ice cream is very similar, however they do have a few different flavors, like Moose Tracks (with what looked like mini Reese Cups mixed in with the dots). According to their founder, they use a 12% butter fat in their melts, giving it a creamier flavor than Dippin Dots, who supposedly uses 8% butter fat.
Coke-a-Cola
Coke had their own booth set up with a brand new product that I’ve only seen on TV. Coke unveiled a machine that can mix 106 different coke products that you can find at the store. It’s a small machine that dispenses ice, then you get to choose what you want to drink, and then from there it will show you various mixes of that product. Regular coke had various flavors like Lime, Orange, Vanilla, Cherry, and more. Not only does the machine mix it right there, it wirelessly transmits information on what’s dispensed so the Coke-a-Cola can see what is popular and what’s not so popular.
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Coke is also trying to get themselves into the coffee market with iced coffee. The booth had two different flavors available: French Vanilla and Caramel. I’m personally not a big fan of caramel, but I enjoyed the caramel iced coffee.
Frukt Sno
It’s one of those innovations that sounds good, tastes great, but it just seems like it won’t do very well in a theme park setting. You’re probably not very likely to find this product in a theme park, but rather a health-food store. Vitamin World, maybe? They had a variety of flavors, including Strawberry, Pineapple, and Mango. Yes, the Mango flavored fruit was yellow. The representative informed us they can do any flavor, but these were the only flavors on display.
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Nitrogen Ice Cream
I can’t remember who made this product (I apologize), however, this product is worth a mention. Actually, it was Erik’s favorite: Nitrogen Ice Cream. The ice cream didn’t have the consistency of ice cream at all. It was more like whipped cream. Oh yeah, and it was cold. It was amazing. Plain and simple.
Parrot-Ice
Parrot ice offers a variety of slushy drinks, including sweet tea and margaritas. The sweet tea was great. If you’ve ever thought of turning sweet tea into ice cubes before, this is by far a much better idea.
Sweet Amanda’s
Although we couldn’t try any of the sweets at this booth, they were offering large candy (and shirt) dispensers. The candy dispensers were the type you would find in something like M&M world filled to the top with M&Ms. The dispensers were very flashy.. and girly too. Perfect for a candy store.
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These few booths were just a few of our highlights from IAAPA. The convention had a wider variety of food than you can possibly imagine. I also tried a mini-cheese burger, BBQ Pizza, Nachos, and a frozen margarita, but I can’t remember the companies that made the products.
Check out our other IAAPA Coverage! Coaster manufactures display their latest and greatest products.
