Greetings and welcome to this week's edition of The Scoop -- Mad Maggie's email newsletter. According to this figure I just made up, 86% of the world's most beautiful people are also Mad Maggie's Newsletter readers, so you're in great company.

Well, we're really settling in to a nice stretch of summer weather. It's nice to get this after the dreadful spring/early summer weather we've had up to this point.

People coming by the stand during last week's hot, humid, high-90's wether remarked to me that I must really be enjoying the hot temperatures. They were surprised when I rolled my eyes and explained that those hot days really aren't good for our sales -- people seem to want to stay home in the air conditioning or by the pool on those days, and our sales are lousy.

So let's hope the rest of the summer is nothing but pleasant, sunny, warm days! (Although it looks like the next day or two are going to be tough to take.)

End of the Summer?! Already??

As hard as it is to believe, the end of the summer is fast approaching. Last week marked the first "last shift" for one of my serving team leaders, Jenny, as she heads off for a family vacation, then off to the University of Illinois for some "Sorority Things" before she officially starts her Sophomore year. Jenny has been an anchor for us this summer, as she's taken several long day shifts and kept a watchful eye on some of the younger kids, we're going to miss having her around.

Others on the serving team are also starting to pencil in their last weeks of work, as they head back to school. It's a bit of a melancholy time around the store as the kids start to leave, as it seems like summer just started, and these kids who've worked hard for us start leaving for the school year.

Funny story about finding someone to take over Jenny's spot: To help take up the slack, I had put a "Help Wanted" sign in our front window. After almost two weeks, we had a handful of applicants, but all were under 16 years old -- a big problem for me once schools start up again, as those under 16 can't work past 7pm on school nights. On Sunday, I asked niece Melissa to take the sign down, as I was convinced that we weren't going to find anyone over 16, and I made a mental note to call up a couple of the 15 year olds that afternoon to fill out our team for the rest of the summer.

No sooner had she taken the sign down when the phone rang, and it was someone who had filled out an early season application wondering if we were still hiring. To my surprise, she was over 16 and ready to start right away. I invited her to come down for a quick interview, and hired her on the spot, so we now have a new team member, Sara, from Wilmington MA to help keep the ice cream flowing through the end of September.

Even stranger, Sara had hardly left the parking lot when another applicant came to the window. Again, over sixteen, a well spoken, friendly and polite teen -- just our type! Unfortunately, I told him we had just hired someone for the position. We went two weeks without being able to find someone old enough for the job, then had two great applicants within an hour of giving up on our search!

Thank God I'm a Country Boy!

I think I wrote in an earlier newsletter this season about how interesting it is to watch/listen as the musical tastes of my squad of mostly-teens changes over the years.

A few of last year's team, and a lot of this year's team, are curiously in to Country and Western music -- so much so that the radio in the store is just about constantly tuned to the C&W station, 99.5 FM if I remember correctly.

This past week, our "sister act" of Janelle and Gina were manning the store one weekday, and during a slow period, got the idea to phone up the station to request a song. (Something about a lonely guy, a lost dog, and a wife who ran off with his best friend, taking his new shotgun and a full pouch of chewin' tobacco, no doubt...)

They didn't get their song played, but they did get to talk to the DJ, who is apparently a regular customer at Mad Maggie's, so she talked up the store a bit. I heard back from a couple of friends who heard us mentioned and got a kick out of it.

Nothing better than free publicity, even if it is a C&W station!

Soft Serve Woes

I wrote earlier this year about our trial of a frozen custard mix in our soft serve machine. At the time, I liked it because it's a premium product, and it matched well with our premium ice cream.

Unfortunately, after serving it for a couple of months now, I've decided to stop offering it. The problem is that the egg in the custard has a tendency to "clump up" if it sits for long in the freezing cylinder. Since our soft serve is really a secondary product to our hard ice cream, we just weren't selling enough of it to keep the product nice and smooth, so we had a lot of complaints about the texture not being right. I'm convinced that for every person who complained, another 10 just chose not to order it again, as our soft serve sales have been declining noticably over the weeks.

So for now, we've switched back to a standard soft serve mix. This is a lousy product from my standpoint, as it's a low end product, made for those operators who are looking to make a high profit selling cheap product. That said, it's the same product that just about every other soft-serve vendor in the area carries. I guess I should be excited about making a bigger profit when I sell a soft serve cone, but the profit isn't my motivation in this business (lucky for all of us, or else I'd have given up on this business a long time ago! ;^), I'd really rather be selling a great product, but we're doing what keeps the most people happy.

From what I can gather from my couple of months of selling soft serve, most of those who prefer soft serve over a great hand scooped ice cream cone (and not to offend any of you who do) really aren't particularly discriminating in their tastes -- they just want something white and cold. So, for the rest of this season at least, we'll sell the product that everyone is used to in soft serve, and I'll probably spend the winter doing some more research into other products we could offer.

Flavor News

Not a lot of new stuff to report here, as my production crew and I have been busy as Kirstie Alley at an all-you-can-eat-buffet just trying to keep our standard flavors in stock. Still, I did get a chance to try a couple of new ones.

• Plum Sorbet -- People look at me oddly when I tell them that I get a lot of our fruit at Costco, but it's the truth. You can't go there looking for anything specific, but they always seem to have something that is at the peak of its flavor season when I'm there. This past week, it was Red Plums -- they were big, juicy, and very tasty, and although I've never tried it before, I decided to grab a couple of boxes to try a Red Plum Sorbet.
  
  The result was delightful, if I do say so myself. The flavor is wonderfully sweet, and I pureed them with the skins, which gave the sorbet a beautiful red color with no artificial colors added. (A friend tells me that the skins also contain much of the flavor.) I've been eating this one all week, I'll be disappointed when it's gone!
• Cherry Vanilla Chip -- Regular customer Bruce stopped by last week and asked when we'd have our summer Cherry Vanilla Chip in stock. Good point! I had all of the ingredients, but this one had just never bubbled to the top of the "to be made" list, so we whipped up a batch within the hour.
  
  This is a vanilla base, with loads of burgundy cherry halves mixed in, along with some chocolate chunks. It isn't one of my personal favorites, but it sure sells fast, so we'll try to keep it in stock for as long as our cherry supply holds up.

A little warning, as this next flavor might come and go fast: I have a friend in Chicago who makes a Habanero Chocolate, and I've found some fresh Habanero peppers, and am planning on trying this sometime this week. Habaneros are supposedly 30 to 50 times hotter than Jalapeno peppers, and my friend Jim claims that they make an "interesting" flavor -- the sweetness of the Chocolate quickly gets followed by the spicy hot habanero flavor in the back of your throat. I'm not sure how this will turn out, but it sounds interesting to me, so we'll hopefully have it stock soon.

Staff Profile

This week's profile is of serving team member Gina, who's one of our rookies this season. Gina lives in Andover, and attends Central Catholic High, where she'll be entering her Sophomore year in a few weeks. She's a soccer player, and spends a lot of her non-work hours practicing.

Gina comes from great bloodlines, as her older sister, Janelle, is one of our team leaders. When Janelle asked me this spring about hiring Gina for the team, I moved her right to the top of the list, as I figured that if she was even half the worker her older sister is, she'd be a great addition.

So far, she's proven my hunches correct, as she's picked up things quickly, and is at this point is a candidate for our "rookie of the year" award. Unlike Janelle though, Gina is a blonde, so we've got to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn't get near any sharp objects or anything...

Gina has also taken on the role of the "brat of the crew", as she's got the same feisty streak as her sister, and has shown no backing down when the older kids try to tease her about being a "rookie". We're happy to have her as part of our team. Here's a link to a photo of Gina with her sister from earlier this year (Gina is on the left):

If you find her waiting on you, make sure to tell her that you read that she's a brat!

Newsletter Coupon

Bring this coupon to the store, and one of my serving team members will read your future for free, just by feeling the bumps on your head! Lean your head in the window, and ask them to rub the top of your head real hard!

Some of my squad might not have received the training on this technique though, so just in case you get one who won't do it, ask them to just give you an extra scoop with whatever you order -- order a kiddie, receive a small; order a small, get a medium; etc.

OK, that's all I have time for this week. Got to get to the store and try to keep the ice cream from melting in this heat wave!

Stay cool, and come on down for a nice cold ice cream to help keep you refreshed!

Thanks for reading!