Favor Station DIY?
Very nice Derek!!
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
Found another Flavour Station design that you could either purchase or make something similar yourself. We also sell lemonade, so I was seeing what's new at http://LemonadeBusiness.com, and discovered it in their New Products section, where it retails for $599. The link to the product, the "U Mix It", is http://lemonadebusiness.com/?page_id=18 ... ucts_id=71
It is an aluminum and PVC box with feet, which appears to contain six of the 5 quart "Slimline" clear plastic containers with built-in spigots that I talked about earlier. Link: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/arrow-ultr ... 0187969434 They have installed standard Tomlinson spigots on the front dispensing area of the box, with, I assume, hoses and connectors into the "back" of the plastic containers, and let the built-in spigots on the front of the clear plastic containers stick out the other side, so you can dispense from both sides of the unit. Rubber mats in front of the unit handle the spills.
Here are pictures of the back and front of their unit:
It is an aluminum and PVC box with feet, which appears to contain six of the 5 quart "Slimline" clear plastic containers with built-in spigots that I talked about earlier. Link: https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/arrow-ultr ... 0187969434 They have installed standard Tomlinson spigots on the front dispensing area of the box, with, I assume, hoses and connectors into the "back" of the plastic containers, and let the built-in spigots on the front of the clear plastic containers stick out the other side, so you can dispense from both sides of the unit. Rubber mats in front of the unit handle the spills.
Here are pictures of the back and front of their unit:
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
Gearing up for another season with our DIY Flavor Station. We had planned to drill holes in the bottom and put a tray under it to catch syrup, but have since decided to take a simpler approach to excess syrup collection. We will instead "hide" the spilled syrup a bit more, much as bars do with their pouring area, with a "knobby" black rubber mat to keep the syrup from getting on the foam cups when the customers are adding their syrup. The rubber knobs will help contain the syrup, and the black color will hide it, so we won't have to clean up as often. We will sop up the syrup with paper towels, and any that spills underneath will be cleaned up when necessary or at the end of the day. If needed, we will remove the mat periodically, and rinse it off.
We looked into bar mats to do this, but they are generally provided free of charge by liquor companies (and have their logos on them) or are quite expensive, and also tend to be the wrong size. As an alternative, we found a $6.99 rubber stair tread at Home Depot (link below) which does the job quite nicely and can be easily trimmed to fit with scissors. As a bonus, the stair tread has a nice "lip" on the front to complete the look. We'll let you know how it works out!
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.rubb ... 77402.html
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.rubb ... 77402.html
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ricoboxing
looks good Derek. Do you find that you have to refill your syrup quite often? They look pretty small.
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
I knew that question would come up. They're one litre bottles, slightly larger than a US quart (32 oz.) which is the same size as the "hand pour" bottles that most people use, so the refill rate, assuming no spillage or overpouring, would be the same. However, since we mainly do events, and can crank out a shaved ice in 3 seconds with our fast cube shaver and integrated cone shaper, we have much higher thruput than a permanent block shaver business would, and certainly do use syrup faster, especially since there are only eight flavors, as opposed to the 40 or more a permanent stand might offer. Of course, with kids pouring their own syrup, there is the possibility of overpour as well.
However, we can "hot fill" an empty flavor bottle in under a minute (just a guess - haven't timed it) without having to remove the bottle from the unit or disrupt the operation. The bottles are filled from the outside top of the Rubbermaid container (I drilled 8 holes with an 1 1/4" spade bit to let the tops of the bottles protrude), by removing the cap, squirting in an ounce of concentrate from a small clear plastic bottle to which we have added markings on the side, and topping up with sugar water from a 1.25 gallon plastic container with a spigot on it. There is no need to shake or stir the bottles -- the pouring adequately mixes the concentrate and the sugar water. We have small labels on the top so we can tell which flavours are in each slots
When refilling we either tell the customers not to use the flavor until we tell them to, or put a foam cup on the spigot to keep them from using it. They are quite happy to either wait a minute or move on to another flavor. The filling process takes place behind the green sign, so the customers don't really see it. Since the bottles are relatively transparent, customers often let us know when a flavour is getting low. We try to refill them during lulls in business as much as possible. There's really only a couple of flavors that need frequent filling (Blue Raspberry and Cherry). If we wanted, we could put two bottles of those in and retire two other flavours. Another solution would be to have extra bottles already filled on hand and replace the bottles, or have premixed 1.25 gallon spigoted bottles of the most popular flavors on hand to pour in quickly.
In reality, the one litre bottles haven't been a problem. Two operators can more than keep up with the operation, and have served up to 500 shaved ice in a single day.
There were several reasons for going with the smaller bottles:
- We wanted a compact dispenser unit that could be carried, full of syrup, by one person, would fit in our small vehicle as one unit, would allow for quick setup (we take off the cover, attach the velcroed sign, and two C clamps and we're in business), and also wouldn't take up a whole lot of room on the serving table.
-We wanted eight flavors to give some variety. Other DIY solutions with larger bottles have only six.
- We wanted a built-in collection area for spilled syrup. Other DIY solutions I have seen let it fall on the ground, which would not go over well at some events (or with the HD). The storage container we use is tall and deep enough to provide room for the syrup to be added to the shaved ice within the unit, so excess will (mostly) stay in the container.
-We wanted to be able to wash the bottles quickly. All eight can fit nicely in our home dishwasher's top rack, while larger bottles wouldn't. We can also fit at least four of them in a standard kitchen sink, while one of the 1.25 gallon containers just barely fit in the sink.
-We wanted bottles that were cheap and easy to replace. These are actually vinegar bottles, available at every grocery store in Canada for $1.25 (we dump the vinegar). By the way, I discovered that they have different vinegar bottle south of the border so they'd have to find a different bottle. We drill a 3/4" hole in the front with a spade bit to attach the spigot. The spigots I got are a hard plastic, available at any wine arts store, and appear to be built to last forever. The ones on the 1.25 gallon containers are a softer plastic.
However, we can "hot fill" an empty flavor bottle in under a minute (just a guess - haven't timed it) without having to remove the bottle from the unit or disrupt the operation. The bottles are filled from the outside top of the Rubbermaid container (I drilled 8 holes with an 1 1/4" spade bit to let the tops of the bottles protrude), by removing the cap, squirting in an ounce of concentrate from a small clear plastic bottle to which we have added markings on the side, and topping up with sugar water from a 1.25 gallon plastic container with a spigot on it. There is no need to shake or stir the bottles -- the pouring adequately mixes the concentrate and the sugar water. We have small labels on the top so we can tell which flavours are in each slots
When refilling we either tell the customers not to use the flavor until we tell them to, or put a foam cup on the spigot to keep them from using it. They are quite happy to either wait a minute or move on to another flavor. The filling process takes place behind the green sign, so the customers don't really see it. Since the bottles are relatively transparent, customers often let us know when a flavour is getting low. We try to refill them during lulls in business as much as possible. There's really only a couple of flavors that need frequent filling (Blue Raspberry and Cherry). If we wanted, we could put two bottles of those in and retire two other flavours. Another solution would be to have extra bottles already filled on hand and replace the bottles, or have premixed 1.25 gallon spigoted bottles of the most popular flavors on hand to pour in quickly.
In reality, the one litre bottles haven't been a problem. Two operators can more than keep up with the operation, and have served up to 500 shaved ice in a single day.
There were several reasons for going with the smaller bottles:
- We wanted a compact dispenser unit that could be carried, full of syrup, by one person, would fit in our small vehicle as one unit, would allow for quick setup (we take off the cover, attach the velcroed sign, and two C clamps and we're in business), and also wouldn't take up a whole lot of room on the serving table.
-We wanted eight flavors to give some variety. Other DIY solutions with larger bottles have only six.
- We wanted a built-in collection area for spilled syrup. Other DIY solutions I have seen let it fall on the ground, which would not go over well at some events (or with the HD). The storage container we use is tall and deep enough to provide room for the syrup to be added to the shaved ice within the unit, so excess will (mostly) stay in the container.
-We wanted to be able to wash the bottles quickly. All eight can fit nicely in our home dishwasher's top rack, while larger bottles wouldn't. We can also fit at least four of them in a standard kitchen sink, while one of the 1.25 gallon containers just barely fit in the sink.
-We wanted bottles that were cheap and easy to replace. These are actually vinegar bottles, available at every grocery store in Canada for $1.25 (we dump the vinegar). By the way, I discovered that they have different vinegar bottle south of the border so they'd have to find a different bottle. We drill a 3/4" hole in the front with a spade bit to attach the spigot. The spigots I got are a hard plastic, available at any wine arts store, and appear to be built to last forever. The ones on the 1.25 gallon containers are a softer plastic.
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
Here's a mockup I just did of a very simple DIY flavor station that anyone could put together in a few minutes, with only a screwdriver needed!
(I only had four containers on hand, not seven, and didn't remove the cooler lid for the mockup)
Go to Walmart, buy one of their standard $25 48 qt coolers https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-48-Q ... r/19629862 and seven $11 1.25 gallon Arrow Ultra Slimline Dispensers https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/arrow-ultr ... 0187969434. If you have a popular flavor, you could replace two of the dispensers with one of their 2.5 gal. ones to keep down on the refilling.
Unscrew and remove the cooler lid (or buy another model with a removable lid), put the cooler on its side on a folding table, and insert the containers in the insulated cooler, to keep them together and protect them from the sun. The built-in cooler handles would make it easy to carry (be sure to remember to tighten the white dispenser lids first). It won't be light though - my calculator tells me that 8.75 gallons of water plus the cooler would weight around 75 pounds.
Use your label maker, or laminate some signs to indicate the flavors and to tell people what it is and you're done! You might also want to elevate the unit to accommodate a drip tray of some sort (maybe the lid could be repurposed for this, or you could use a boot tray). To keep the bottles from falling out, a dollar store black rubber strap with hooks could be threaded through the dispenser handles and fastened on to the cooler handles.You could also put Velcro on the bottom of the containers to fasten them to the cooler so they don't move around when almost empty.
For cleaning, the spigots unscrew from the containers, and the containers fit on their sides in a standard kitchen sink.
Go to Walmart, buy one of their standard $25 48 qt coolers https://www.walmart.com/ip/Coleman-48-Q ... r/19629862 and seven $11 1.25 gallon Arrow Ultra Slimline Dispensers https://www.walmart.ca/en/ip/arrow-ultr ... 0187969434. If you have a popular flavor, you could replace two of the dispensers with one of their 2.5 gal. ones to keep down on the refilling.
Unscrew and remove the cooler lid (or buy another model with a removable lid), put the cooler on its side on a folding table, and insert the containers in the insulated cooler, to keep them together and protect them from the sun. The built-in cooler handles would make it easy to carry (be sure to remember to tighten the white dispenser lids first). It won't be light though - my calculator tells me that 8.75 gallons of water plus the cooler would weight around 75 pounds.
Use your label maker, or laminate some signs to indicate the flavors and to tell people what it is and you're done! You might also want to elevate the unit to accommodate a drip tray of some sort (maybe the lid could be repurposed for this, or you could use a boot tray). To keep the bottles from falling out, a dollar store black rubber strap with hooks could be threaded through the dispenser handles and fastened on to the cooler handles.You could also put Velcro on the bottom of the containers to fasten them to the cooler so they don't move around when almost empty.
For cleaning, the spigots unscrew from the containers, and the containers fit on their sides in a standard kitchen sink.
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
Update: the knobby rubber Home Depot stair tread to collect spilled syrup worked like a charm! We just did an event with it, and didn't need to mop up the syrup at all. It was still there, but nobody noticed it on the black color, so we didn't need to clean it up, saving lots of time, and improving the appearance. When I got home, I just rinsed out the mat and flavor station, and it was set to go again!
DerekinCanada wrote:Gearing up for another season with our DIY Flavor Station. We had planned to drill holes in the bottom and put a tray under it to catch syrup, but have since decided to take a simpler approach to excess syrup collection. We will instead "hide" the spilled syrup a bit more, much as bars do with their pouring area, with a "knobby" black rubber mat to keep the syrup from getting on the foam cups when the customers are adding their syrup. The rubber knobs will help contain the syrup, and the black color will hide it, so we won't have to clean up as often. We will sop up the syrup with paper towels, and any that spills underneath will be cleaned up when necessary or at the end of the day. If needed, we will remove the mat periodically, and rinse it off.
We looked into bar mats to do this, but they are generally provided free of charge by liquor companies (and have their logos on them) or are quite expensive, and also tend to be the wrong size. As an alternative, we found a $6.99 rubber stair tread at Home Depot (link below) which does the job quite nicely and can be easily trimmed to fit with scissors. As a bonus, the stair tread has a nice "lip" on the front to complete the look. We'll let you know how it works out!
https://www.homedepot.ca/en/home/p.rubb ... 77402.html
Last edited by DerekinCanada on Tue Aug 15, 2017 2:42 am, edited 2 times in total.
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stingray2015
FYI, those 1.25 slimline gallon containers that cost $11 at WalMart. The exact same ones are at BigLots for $4.99 ea. Handle these containers with care because they are not durable and not made for commercial use. I've had a few leak which can cause a big mess. But these are still the most practical and least expensive flavor stations that can be made.
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
You're lucky - we don't have Big Lots in Canada, and I've only been able to find them at WalMart (and a slightly different version for $15 at Canadian Tire). I accidentally pushed one full of sugar water off a table when setting up at a Farmers Market, and it broke when it hit the pavement. What a mess! We always keep spares because they aren't that durable, and often sold out in mid-summer, but they are certainly an excellent flavor station solution. We used smaller bottles in our flavor station, but these are used to mix and store our sugar water, and to fill the flavor station containers with sugar water (after adding concentrate), using the built-in spigots).
stingray2015 wrote:FYI, those 1.25 slimline gallon containers that cost $11 at WalMart. The exact same ones are at BigLots for $4.99 ea. Handle these containers with care because they are not durable and not made for commercial use. I've had a few leak which can cause a big mess. But these are still the most practical and least expensive flavor stations that can be made.
Last edited by DerekinCanada on Sun Oct 29, 2017 3:48 am, edited 3 times in total.
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DerekinCanada
- Posts: 90
- Joined: Sat Oct 18, 2014 1:17 pm
Yesterday was the final day of the season for our Canadian shaved ice and fresh squeezed lemonade "tent and table" business, and it definitely ended on a good note - a six hour annual event with a reported 15,000 in attendance, which resulted in our biggest day ever - even bigger than 12 hour days that end with fireworks, and are in much warmer weather. The only competition on the "frozen treat" front was one ice cream vendor, and there was one person selling pre-made lemonade, who sold out quickly. It was also the debut of the latest addition to our home-built Self Serve Flavor Station -- our syrup drain system. A few weeks ago, we were doing a three day event inside a hockey rink with a cement floor, and had poor weather the first two days, meaning we got slammed the third day, and things got messy, with a lot of syrup ending up on the floor and causing a slippage hazard and a complaint from the event manager.
It was time to come up with a solution.
(Photo: new flavor station drain system in action - no leakage)
I drilled a hole in the corner of our DIY Flavor Station's Rubbermaid container housing (see previous posts) to fit a plastic socket that would allow me to insert a length of 1/2" clear polyethylene tubing to drain away the excess syrup. For the socket I used the inner piece of a Watts Quick Connect Elbow (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/watts ... p.html#spc) and glued it in place with an epoxy for plastics. I took out one of the inner tabs to allow liquid to enter the socket more easily. I also made a plug out of a short piece of the tubing, some string, and some clear silicone that I can use to plug the hole for transport. When in use, the plug is replaced with the long tubing, leading into a collection container (an old liquid laundry detergent container) on the ground. I tried to run the tubing into the existing collection container for the ice shaver, but found the waste syrup flowed much better with a straight up and down hose, so I am now adding a second container.
I also wanted to eliminate the possibility of syrup leakage from the front, especially if the drain was to get clogged with snow or debris. To do this, I made a "lip" for the front of the unit by cutting a piece from the Rubbermaid container's lid, using a box knife and a jigsaw, and siliconing it to the front of the storage container. This created a new problem. I used to clamp the Flavor Station to our folding table using two C clamps - one in each corner of the Rubbermaid box. This was no longer possible, as the clamps wouldn't fit over the lip. Using the remainder of the box lid, I made a base for the Flavor Station with a hole in it for the drain tube on the right hand side that would protrude over the edge of the table, and slots for the C clamps.
I got some industrial-strength 2" Velcro (R) tape (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/velcr ... p.html#srp) to attach the flavor station to the base. The base is clamped to the table first, after the drain plug is removed, then the flavor station is attached to the base, and the tubing is installed. The flavor station holds quite nicely to the base, but can be removed fairly easily, too, and the base still works as a lid for the flavor station during transport. There is the added bonus that the C-clamps are now off to the sides instead of being inside the Flavor Station pouring area, keeping them clean, and improving appearance.
Photo: Velcro base and Flavor Station showing "lip" installed.
Finally, I had to shorten the knobby rubber stair tread I am using to serve as a base in the syrup collection area, using scissors to cut a "trough" in the back of the unit to allow the syrup to more easily flow into the tubing hole.
Photo: Trough, hole, lip, tubing, C-Clamp
At the end of our busiest day ever, the gray cement patio stones that our booth was on were completely clean and dry. Total parts cost: about $8 for more tubing than I needed, $10 for the epoxy, $5 for the elbow that I got the tubing socket from, $15 for the Velcro (R), and $4 for a small tube of silicone - total of around $42.
Photo: Pouring Syrup
With the customers adding their own syrup, and getting their own napkins and spoons, we were able to keep the shaved ice and lemonade line moving quickly on our busiest day ever with just two main operators - one dedicated to making lemonade four at a time, and the second taking orders, making change, and making shaved ice. I was in the background when needed, mixing sugar water, topping up syrups, napkins and spoons, and keeping the ice cube cooler filled. We didn't spend any time at all cleaning up syrup messes, and the lack of spilled syrup had the added benefit of minimizing the number of wasps, always a problem here in October.
This should be the end of development on this DIY Flavor Station - it now works perfectly for our needs. The only additional improvement would be to have larger syrup containers, but the 32 oz/1 litre containers are working fine for now, and being able to "hot fill" them without taking them out of the Flavor Station means that topping up a flavor takes only a minute.
Photo: Busy!
I've put a lot of hours in over last 3 1/2 years in perfecting our home-built Flavor Station. As I've said before, the customers love pouring their own syrups and making flavor combinations, and it greatly speeds up serving time.
Don't pour your own syrups at events - you're wasting time and money!
It was time to come up with a solution.
I drilled a hole in the corner of our DIY Flavor Station's Rubbermaid container housing (see previous posts) to fit a plastic socket that would allow me to insert a length of 1/2" clear polyethylene tubing to drain away the excess syrup. For the socket I used the inner piece of a Watts Quick Connect Elbow (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/watts ... p.html#spc) and glued it in place with an epoxy for plastics. I took out one of the inner tabs to allow liquid to enter the socket more easily. I also made a plug out of a short piece of the tubing, some string, and some clear silicone that I can use to plug the hole for transport. When in use, the plug is replaced with the long tubing, leading into a collection container (an old liquid laundry detergent container) on the ground. I tried to run the tubing into the existing collection container for the ice shaver, but found the waste syrup flowed much better with a straight up and down hose, so I am now adding a second container.
I also wanted to eliminate the possibility of syrup leakage from the front, especially if the drain was to get clogged with snow or debris. To do this, I made a "lip" for the front of the unit by cutting a piece from the Rubbermaid container's lid, using a box knife and a jigsaw, and siliconing it to the front of the storage container. This created a new problem. I used to clamp the Flavor Station to our folding table using two C clamps - one in each corner of the Rubbermaid box. This was no longer possible, as the clamps wouldn't fit over the lip. Using the remainder of the box lid, I made a base for the Flavor Station with a hole in it for the drain tube on the right hand side that would protrude over the edge of the table, and slots for the C clamps.
I got some industrial-strength 2" Velcro (R) tape (http://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/velcr ... p.html#srp) to attach the flavor station to the base. The base is clamped to the table first, after the drain plug is removed, then the flavor station is attached to the base, and the tubing is installed. The flavor station holds quite nicely to the base, but can be removed fairly easily, too, and the base still works as a lid for the flavor station during transport. There is the added bonus that the C-clamps are now off to the sides instead of being inside the Flavor Station pouring area, keeping them clean, and improving appearance.
Finally, I had to shorten the knobby rubber stair tread I am using to serve as a base in the syrup collection area, using scissors to cut a "trough" in the back of the unit to allow the syrup to more easily flow into the tubing hole.
At the end of our busiest day ever, the gray cement patio stones that our booth was on were completely clean and dry. Total parts cost: about $8 for more tubing than I needed, $10 for the epoxy, $5 for the elbow that I got the tubing socket from, $15 for the Velcro (R), and $4 for a small tube of silicone - total of around $42.
With the customers adding their own syrup, and getting their own napkins and spoons, we were able to keep the shaved ice and lemonade line moving quickly on our busiest day ever with just two main operators - one dedicated to making lemonade four at a time, and the second taking orders, making change, and making shaved ice. I was in the background when needed, mixing sugar water, topping up syrups, napkins and spoons, and keeping the ice cube cooler filled. We didn't spend any time at all cleaning up syrup messes, and the lack of spilled syrup had the added benefit of minimizing the number of wasps, always a problem here in October.
This should be the end of development on this DIY Flavor Station - it now works perfectly for our needs. The only additional improvement would be to have larger syrup containers, but the 32 oz/1 litre containers are working fine for now, and being able to "hot fill" them without taking them out of the Flavor Station means that topping up a flavor takes only a minute.
I've put a lot of hours in over last 3 1/2 years in perfecting our home-built Flavor Station. As I've said before, the customers love pouring their own syrups and making flavor combinations, and it greatly speeds up serving time.
Don't pour your own syrups at events - you're wasting time and money!
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