Educator’s passion for kids leads to adding science to ice cream

N7 Kream Lab's customer favorite, Salted Caramel Pretzel.  Made from their signature salted caramel base with salted pretzels and a flavor syringe of caramel.

Credit: Kelli Bain

Credit: Kelli Bain

N7 Kream Lab's customer favorite, Salted Caramel Pretzel. Made from their signature salted caramel base with salted pretzels and a flavor syringe of caramel.

Q: My son attended a birthday party that N7 Kream Lab hosted and has talked nonstop about it. Will you tell me about this business?

A: N7 Kream Lab is a chemistry-themed liquid nitrogen ice cream pop-up that serves up the frozen treat coupled with some science.

The merger is the brainchild of Kelli Bain, chemistry major and University System of Georgia educator.

Having generations of family members in education and a grandfather whose “thing” was making ice cream in the summers, it was inevitable that founder Bain found a way to collectively combine her love of teaching and the family’s frozen dessert.

Researching solid-state batteries with Tuskegee alumnus and inventor of the Super Soaker water gun, Lonnie Johnson, provided forward thought.

“Working with all these gases I started thinking about what could I experiment with that would be great to do with kids,” she said.

A mashup of chemistry and her grandfather's ice cream gave Kelli Bain, founder of N7 Kream Lab, a unique approach to education.

Credit: Kelli Bain

icon to expand image

Credit: Kelli Bain

Bain got to work with the purchase of an ice cream maker and taking a nitrogen-filled dewar home.

A STEM week at Centennial Academy where she made ice cream with liquid nitrogen, followed by talking about the chemistry behind it and then letting the kids enjoy the frozen creation soon led to pop-up events: birthdays, catering, weddings, bar mitzvahs.

She notes that she creates flavors you can not get anywhere else and everything is pure sugarcane-based flavors.

N7 Kream Lab's signature diary base ice cream, infused with blackberries, strawberries and raspberry.

Credit: Kelli Bain

icon to expand image

Credit: Kelli Bain

All of the ice creams come with a syringe filled with a sauce or syrup (topping).

“This is unique because you can add to the top and as you eat your way down, you can continue to release it and actually have some when you reach the bottom of your cone as opposed to only having the syrup at the top,” Bain said.

At birthday parties, kids are always excited. Bain shows the dewar and does a couple of tricks.

“We talk about what they are able to see,” she said. “It forever creates a memory in kids’ minds. That they would not only remember and see me, a black lady, doing nitrogen and science, but also being able to remember and having that exposure. What better way to do that than over ice cream?”

For more information, visit IG @n7kreamlab


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