Instacream N7 Brings Whimsical Nitrogen Ice Cream to Hialeah

Instacream N7, a Hialeah-born nitrogen ice-cream store, looks like something straight out of a comic book. An image of a yellow-haired, goofy-looking animated scientist, holding a bubbling pink-and-blue flask, commands the store's wall. A few steps away, metal pipes dangle above the shop's counter; behind it hangs a large red-and-white flavor menu. A light white smoke, a product of making nitrogen ice cream, envelops the cartoonish scene.

The wacky, industrial-style shop is the progeny of Andrea Kasinsky. Before she launched Instacream N7, which debuted in May 2016, she had never liked ice cream. Now she can't get enough.

"I didn't realize nitrogen ice cream existed until a family friend came to me with the idea of opening a store," she says. "But when I tried it, I fell in love."

That's when she decided to open Instacream N7 (8008 NW 103rd St., Hialeah Gardens), one of Hialeah's only nitrogen ice-cream stores. "We're surrounded by a few middle and high schools, so we've gotten a large following," she says.

Though Kasinsky doesn't have a culinary degree, she crafts all of Instacream N7's signature pairings herself.
One of the store's best sellers is the Hialeah, guava and cream cheese ice cream topped with Maria cookies and a guava-paste-filled syringe. Other favorites include the Tropical Fusion, blended with passionfruit, strawberry, pineapple, and coconut; and the Chocolate Explosion, which packs chocolate ice cream with brownies, a chocolate syringe, Kit Kats, M&M's, and chocolate sprinkles into a cup. Prices are $4.50 for a six-ounce serving, $4.99 for an eight-ounce portion, and 50 cents per mix-in.

"We try to make our creations really cool," she says. "We also like to add a Latin and Miami touch to the ice cream too."

The ice cream itself takes about one minute to make, and customers can create their own blends instead of defaulting to one of Kasinsky's. Flavors range from vanilla and coffee to cotton candy, peanut butter, and malted milk.

"Anyone can make any type of ice cream they want," she says. "They can combine six or seven flavors into a cup."

Instacream N7 is only about seven months old, but Kasinsky says she sees more stores in her future.

"I definitely would like to," she says. "We're thinking Miami Lakes, but we haven't seriously looked into it. Right now, I want to grow this one and then move from there."

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