Shipping Ice Cream

DragonPup

So I am seeing this wonderful lady and she's from Michigan. There is like only one thing she misses from home that she can't get here; Superman Icecream. Seems it doesn't exist out of her state. Anyways, I was thinking an awesome Christmas gift would be to have some shipped. I have never shipped icecream before, so what needs to be done to ensure it survives the trip without becoming a liquid?

If feasible, then the next step is to find someone willing to ship it for a paypalling. ;-)

TheKoolEagle

Styrofoam cooler with dry ice should do the trick, I just googled it and thats how this company does it
http://www.icecreamsource.com/Shipping-Policy_ep_36-1.html

MushroomStick

I would not be surprised if shipping a few ice cream bars this way would cost more than sending her a plane ticket/gas money for a trip back home.

mts

yea shipping things in Dry ice is expensive

However, depending on how far you need to ship/how long it take to get there, you can reduce the cost a lot. basically the more dry ice you need to ship, the more it costs since there are limits to the amount that can go in a plane.

wonderpug

If she'd be happy with just the blue flavor, looks like you can order 8 pints for $60 through Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Moon-Ice-Cream-Sampler/dp/B0007R78O2/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1318448222&sr=8-3

Rotting Meat

You need at least 1.5 kg of dry ice per 24 hours, and if you're going to ship with it make sure you read about it. Simple, but you need to ensure the container is not completely sealed air-tight, and the outside of the package has a sign denoting dry ice, and labelled with how much dry ice is present. Unfortunately that weight of dry ice is also adding to your shipping weight, so the price does add up, and you most certainly will need to ship priority.

punk

Dry Ice is also considered a hazardous material, so there will be some fees based on that as well.

Skoal Cat

If you do this, you have to overnight it. That's the only way Lou Malnati's ships their pizza.

Forar

Dry ice is definitely the way to go. Back when Stephen Colbert announced his new Americone Dream Ben & Jerry's flavour, some guys and gals in the Colbert Nation sent a bunch of it to soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that was the method they used. Now, they were shipping fairly large quantities, and depending on your local establishments, you might be dealing with a sizable minimum dry ice purchase along with the weight, shipping and whatnot.

If you're dead set on doing it, you might want to google up their experience, as it ought to give you a good head start on what you're looking at.

BlindZenDriver

You could look for a company in Michigan that makes food stuff sold in your part of the world or maybe a trucking company. I'd say it would not be impossible to arrange a special shipping of sorts if you ask in the right way and can pick up the package at a distribution center or something like that (I once had a case of Christmas beer transport the whole way through Europe like that for nothing more than a "Thank you" and a few local beers in return).

GenlyAi

Just FedEx it on dry ice. Yes, it will be costly, but it is still quite standard. There is a checkbox right on the FedEx form that says "dry ice" next to it.