The ice-cream that astronauts eat is coming to Costa Rica. Ok, so dippin’ dots are not actually like the ice cream that astronauts eat, but they are still coming to Costa Rica.

The company has recently opened a retail store in Mall Plaza Premium La Cuesta in Escazu, Costa Rica, with plans to expand dippin’ dots throughout Central and South America. The initial acquisition of product rights and the retail store by the Oasis Group of Costa Rica cost one million USD, and plans to expand the franchise are underway.

The new retail store in Escazu and also ten Auto Mercados in the greater San Jose area are now selling the liquid nitrogen frozen ice cream, but the origin of that ice cream is still the headquarters in Paducah, Kentucky. The Oasis group, however, is looking to set up a production plant in Costa Rica which would potentially serve the Central and South American region. In the meantime, a second ice cream shop is going to be opened in Lindora (east of San Jose city), and the Oasis Company is offering franchise operations for local investors.

Dippin’ Dots were originally conceived by a microbiologist named Curt Jones in 1988. He used his background in Cryogenic Freezing Technology to develop the bead like ice cream by flash freezing natural ice cream ingredients and packaging it. Liquid nitrogen freezes the ice cream at minus 340°F, and then the ice cream is stored at negative 22°F. All of the domestically sold ice cream is made at the original manufacturing plant in Paducah, Kentucky, but there are other Dippin’ Dot factories outside of the United States for international markets.

In Costa Rica, the Dos Pinos Ice Cream Company leads the pack with smaller companies like Pops, Helados Díaz, Monteverde and others following slightly behind. Dos Pinos controls about eighty five percent of the market in Costa Rica. If Dippin’ Dots can carve a slice out of the ice cream markets pie, is yet to be seen, but the people of the Oasis Company seem to think it can. Contracts for franchise stores are underway in the provinces of Alajuela and Heredia as well, so it looks pretty good thus far.

Many questions about the fascinating Dippin’ Dot ice cream are answered at the websites FAQ.

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