Cold Stone (Workers Please) Smoothie question?

Question

Recently the store I work at got a complaint that a smoothie still had chunks of ice in it. The Cold Stone recipe amounts really don't seem to work to well (especially the berry trinity), and don't blend properly. My boss is looking for a way to avoid large chunks. I told him that I increase the liquid, reducing the ice, blend half the ice on the "Shake" setting until smooth, and then adding the rest of the ice and blending on "Shake". Then he said that that increased cost and to seek alternate ways like blending on "Coffee Over Ice" (which seems like too course of a blend) and blending several times. Unfortunately, the smoothie still tends to be too thick and air pockets around the blade (causing it to spin under the smoothie and not blending).

Is there a way to reduce cost, cut down on time and effort required to make it, eliminate waste, make it so it doesn't taste watery, and make it the right consistency?

Amounts of the ingredients you use for each size/type are appriciated!

Answer 1

We kinda have it figured out at my store.

What we do is add about 1-2oz more of the liquid, and then follow corporate's directions to "fill the cup" (the corprate guy came in, i did not know it was him, i made the thing wrong, then he told me how to do it right), but fill the appropriate cup (e.g., 16 oz cup, so 16oz ice), unless there is "ice dust", then wee fill it about 2oz less, but here's the key part- don't run it on half shake, if you guys use the vita mix (all coldstones do, i believe), "pulse" it on high until most of the ice is chopped (not mixed), then run it on the smoothie setting

Answer 2

Alright I see what your problem is, same thing with our store.

We tried several alternatives and each worker does it differantly, but here is what I like to do, I find it works well.

Reduce the amount of ice just slightly, keeping the liquid the same (dont worry it will still be enough ingrediant). Blend it on  Shake for about half the time, then blend it on Coffee Over Ice, for a little, then go back to blend it on shake.  It sounds like it takes longer but it really doesn't. Dont blend it on Coffee over ice for a long time, just a few seconds.

This should work, a few workers at my store do it and it seems to work perfectly.