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Pros
The wealth of settings and accessories, attractive design, automatic keep cool setting, different hardness settings, lets you know when to add in extras
Cons
Couldn’t get the automatic sensor to work

Read our full guide to the best ice cream makers

What is the Sage the Smart Scoop like to use?

This great-looking ice cream maker deserves pride of place on the kitchen counter. It comes ready assembled, but putting it together is a breeze. Every component slots and locks into place with ease.

It has a large and clear backlit display and whilst the wealth of settings appears a little overwhelming at first, they’re actually quite intuitive and well explained in the manual. The buttons are robust, and the dial used to adjust the hardness is responsive and satisfying to use.

According to Sage, this model has an inbuilt automatic hardness sensor that stops the machine from churning when the desired thickness has been reached. However, we struggled to get this to work and consistently had to stop the machine ourselves because the blade was loudly scraping along the inside of the bowl. Whilst the ice cream was thick, it was disappointing that we weren’t able to get this feature to work.

How did the Sage the Smart Scoop perform?

Although we struggled with the sensor, our vanilla ice cream, mango sorbet and chocolate and black pepper gelato all looked and tasted fantastic.

The vanilla ice cream was slow melting and luxurious. It was the ideal texture to serve straight away, or perhaps keep in the machine for a couple of hours thanks to the clever three-hour keep cool function. We loved this feature and thought it’d be fabulous to use when entertaining.

Gelato was super smooth and intensely creamy. We were concerned that we wouldn’t be able to tell the difference, texturally, between the ice cream and the gelato because there isn’t a different paddle, unlike the Cuisinart model. But the difference was distinct: the gelato was a lot denser and silkier.

Our gorgeously summery sorbet was quick to firm up. The ice crystals were very small, which gave it an almost creamy texture. It was soft and slow-melting, and could have easily been served immediately.

olive's take: should you buy the Sage the Smart Scoop?

There’s no denying it, this is a fantastic-looking ice cream machine that’s been kitted out to the max with a range of useful settings and a clear display. It deserves a prime position on the kitchen counter and is sure to get guests talking.

The large, clear display lets you know how every stage is progressing and even alerts when it’s time to add in extras.

It produced consistently high-quality ice cream, gelato and sorbet to rival the offerings in your favourite gelateria. We struggled to get the automatic hardness sensor to work, but this didn’t affect the quality of the results. The extra included accessories, like the ice cream scoop and bottle brush, mean it’s easy to get every drop of ice cream out of the bowl and clean up is a doddle.

Sage the Smart Scoop specifications

Bowl capacity: 1L
Accessories: ice cream scoop, bottle brush
Pre-set functions: none
Dimensions (cm): H:25.7 x W:40.6 x D: 28.2
Colours: silver

This review was last updated in May 2021. If you have any questions, suggestions for future reviews or spot anything that has changed in price or availability, please get in touch at oliveweb@immediate.co.uk.

Lydia AndersonProduct Testing Lead

Sage the Smart Scoop review

Pros

Cons

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