Menus & Cuisines
Ice Cream Catering in Medellín
Medellin Elite Catering brings ice cream to parties in Medellín in four ways: a freezer cart with scoops, a rolled ice cream show on a frozen plate, a build-your-own sundae bar and boxes of fruit paletas. Our ice creams and sorbets are churned in our own kitchen with fruit from Colombian farms, so flavors like lulo and guanábana taste fresh, not artificial.
We serve children's birthdays, weddings that want a cool treat at the end of the night, pool parties at fincas, school fairs and company family days. Foreign guests love trying fruits they have never heard of, and Colombian guests love seeing their childhood flavors served as a proper dessert.
We have catered parties in the Aburrá Valley since 2019, and ice cream is the one product that leaves no margin for error. Medellín afternoons sit between 22 and 28 °C, so every cart, cooler and serving time is planned to keep the ice cream firm until the last scoop.
- Itemized quotes available
- Bilingual English and Spanish coordinators
Plan your event
Our Ice Cream Catering
Ice cream catering means we bring the ice cream, the freezer equipment and the staff to scoop or roll it at your event. You choose the format, the flavors and the toppings, and we handle storage, power and cleanup.
The most common booking is a cart at a kids' birthday party catering event, where ice cream follows the cake and keeps the children busy for a while. Weddings book it as a late-evening treat on the dance floor, and companies use it at family days, product launches and open-air events in the dry months.
Ice Cream Formats
We offer four formats, and each needs a different amount of space, power and staff. This table shows how they compare.
| Format | What happens | Staff | Power | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ice cream cart | Scoops from a freezer cart with 4 to 6 flavors, in cones or cups | 1 server per 60 to 80 guests | One standard outlet | Birthdays, weddings, family days |
| Rolled ice cream | A cook pours a liquid base on a plate frozen to about minus 25 °C, mixes in fruit and rolls it | 1 cook per 40 to 50 guests | Dedicated outlet | Teen parties, launches, shows |
| Sundae bar | Two or three ice creams with 10 toppings and sauces; guests build their own | 1 attendant | One outlet for the freezer | Children's parties, offices |
| Paletas | Fruit and cream ice pops served from a cooler | None for drop-off | None | Pool parties, school fairs, outdoor events |
Rolled ice cream is the most theatrical and the slowest, at about 2 minutes per portion, so it suits groups of up to 100 guests per plate. For a large wedding or a family day of 300 people, a cart or paletas serve faster.
Tropical Flavors
Colombia grows fruits that most visitors have never tasted, and they make some of the best sorbets in the world. Our tropical flavors are made from fresh pulp, not syrups, and we change the list with the harvest.
Lulo is a tart, citrusy fruit from the Andes with a green pulp, and it makes a sharp, refreshing sorbet. Maracuyá (passion fruit) is intensely sour and fragrant, guanábana (soursop) is creamy with a taste between pineapple and banana, and mango biche is green mango served the Colombian way with a pinch of salt and lime.
| Flavor | Base | Character |
|---|---|---|
| Lulo | Sorbet | Tart and citrusy |
| Maracuyá | Sorbet or cream | Sour, perfumed |
| Guanábana | Cream | Smooth, tropical |
| Mango biche with salt and lime | Sorbet | Tangy, salty, surprising |
| Coconut | Coconut milk | Creamy and dairy-free |
| Arequipe | Cream | Caramel, very sweet |
| Queso y bocadillo | Cream with guava paste swirl | A Colombian classic in ice cream form |
| Colombian coffee | Cream | Made with coffee from Antioquia |
For a mixed crowd, we suggest two tropical fruits, one cream classic such as chocolate or vanilla, and one Colombian favorite such as arequipe. Children usually go for chocolate and strawberry first, and come back later for the maracuyá.
Keeping Ice Cream Frozen Outdoors
Ice cream must be stored at minus 18 °C and served at about minus 12 to minus 14 °C, which is soft enough to scoop and firm enough to hold. On a 26 °C afternoon in Medellín, a tub left in the open turns to soup within 15 minutes, so every format has its own cold chain.
Our carts are plug-in freezers that hold minus 14 °C at the serving lid, and reserve stock waits in chest freezers or in coolers packed with dry ice. Paletas travel in insulated boxes with dry ice and are moved to a tray of crushed ice only in small batches, which keeps them firm for the 20 minutes they spend on display.
Fincas around Llanogrande and Guatapé sometimes have weak or distant power, so for those venues we bring a quiet inverter generator and run long cables away from guest areas. We also place carts in shade and away from grills or heaters, and in the rainy seasons of April to May and October to November we add a canopy so rain does not reach the open lid.
Quantities per Guest
For a dessert moment after a meal, plan 2 scoops (about 140 g) per adult and 1 to 2 scoops per child. One liter of ice cream gives 12 to 14 scoops, so a party of 50 needs about 8 liters.
When ice cream is the only dessert at a hot outdoor event, allow 3 scoops or 1 paleta plus 1 scoop per guest, because people come back. We always bring 10% more stock than the count, packed in dry ice, so the last guests have the same choice as the first.
Staffed formats arrive with the equipment, cones, cups, toppings and cleanup, while paletas for drop-off come in boxes of 24. A 2-hour cart at a birthday for 60 guests in a salón social, a typical booking for catering in Itagüí, needs about 10 liters of ice cream and one server. For a full sweet table with cakes and Colombian desserts beside the cart, see our dessert catering menu.
Questions and answers
Ice Cream FAQs
Do you offer dairy-free ice cream?
Yes, all our fruit sorbets are dairy-free, and we also make a coconut milk ice cream for guests who want something creamy. Lulo, maracuyá, mango and strawberry sorbets are made with fruit, water and cane sugar only, so they suit vegan and lactose-intolerant guests. They are scooped with a separate spoon and stored in their own freezer compartment.
How long can the cart stay?
Our standard ice cream cart serves for 2 hours, which covers the dessert moment of most parties and weddings. You can extend it by the hour, and we bring extra stock and a backup cooler for services up to 4 hours. Beyond that, we recommend two shorter services, for example one in the afternoon for children and one after dinner for adults.
Reserve your date
Book an Ice Cream Cart
Tell us your date, venue, number of guests and the format you prefer, and we will send an itemized ice cream quote within 24 hours. You can also contact info@medellincatering.com.
- Itemized quotes available
- Menus, staff, tableware, setup and cleanup in one quote
- Food-handler certified team and labeled allergens on every tray
- Monday to Saturday
- 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
- Sunday
- Closed (events still run)