The invention of carbonated soft serve by two Heber City brothers is shrouded in myth. When asked about it, JC and David Olsen, owners of the recently opened Fizwip, point to their mascot — a four-pronged, winking fluffball. Apparently, the creature is a genie from another planet.
The story goes that one night in 2024, the brothers were visited by the genie. It used its prongs to spin soft serve, infusing carbon dioxide during the freezing process. The result, soda cream, is a “soda-flavored soft serve with a subtle carbonation bite,” JC said.
At Fizwip, the brothers serve their genie juice as three products, called “Fizz-ee,” “Fiz-aa” and “Fiz-oo.” These are best described as a soda, shake and soft serve, respectively. But soda cream’s texture is closer to a creamy ICEE or the ice cream at the bottom of a root beer float than anything you’d find among the frozen desserts at a grocery store.
The genie story is, of course, just a fun explanation the Olsens use to avoid revealing the secret process behind making soda cream. The real origin story began about two decades ago, when the brothers stumbled across the idea of carbonating frozen yogurt.
“It was interesting, and it worked, but it was not scalable,” JC said.
The brothers forgot about the idea until three years ago, when they were quitting their “corporate tortures” and were looking for something else to do. They started their messy experiments right away.
“To carbonate anything, you’ve got to put it under pressure,” David said. “We’ve had to clean the ceiling a few times.”
After about four months of experimentation, the Olsens developed a “disgusting” prototype, as JC called it, using off-the-shelf ice cream mix.
“Carbonating a milk product just didn’t taste right,” David said. “So then, the next step was, ‘Let’s go talk to some people who understand the science behind the mix itself and have them work with us on designing a base mix that will accept the carbonation and still feel good in your mouth.’”
The brothers created a lactose-free mix, and thus, soda cream was born.
“We’re not going for a heavy ice cream,” David said. “It’s a light, refreshing kind of texture to it.”
Right: Customers line up for Fizwip.
They then went to work developing flavors: dragonfruit, black cherry cola, blue raspberry, piña colada, root beer, orange cream and many more. They even have some seasonal flavors they’re planning, like ginger beer and eggnog.
The Olsens pitched their idea last summer to the management of Pacific Park on the Santa Monica Pier in California. Fizwip was such a hit that the brothers decided to take the concept back to their hometown. They moved into the Main Street building that formerly housed the OG Cafe, opening earlier this month.
“We like this because we can really build the brand. Down there (at Pacific Park), they’re buying our product to resell, but they employ all the people. They do all the operations,” David said.
The space the Olsens have cultivated brings the theme park vibe to Heber City. The walls are vibrantly painted and feature prism windows that transform sunshine into rainbows dancing on the walls. There’s a mirror room that reflects trippy projections of fish and, near the entrance, a QR code customers can scan to print off any photo to add to a photo wall.
And not all remnants of the OG Cafe have disappeared. Local artist Jacob Fernandez’s mural outside the restaurant, which depicts the cafe’s iconic, sunglasses-clad goats driving a Volkswagen van, now features the Fizwip genie riding in the backseat.
“We decided earlier we want our DNA on this thing. It’s quirky. It’s weird. But we love it because it’s us,” David said about the interior decoration. He would have added a mini golf course and a roller skate rink if he could have pulled it off.
Fizwip also hosts community events ranging from World Cup watch parties to disco nights.
The point of the space, JC said, is to “walk in, feel happy, escape life for 20 minutes.”
That ethos of invoking childhood nostalgia bleeds into the menu, too. Beyond soda cream products, Fizwip also sells walking tacos — a staple of JC’s Boy Scout camping trips — and fries and churros fried in tallow.
The churros come in flavors just as wacky and colorful as the soda cream flavors. There’s even blue raspberry and green apple churros for those accustomed to puckering up. And if your churro isn’t sweet enough, you can order a “Chur-aa” topped with whipped cream and your choice of other toppings, ranging from Pop Rocks to boba.
“One of the things we said is we want everything to be familiar. Churros are familiar. Fries are familiar. Soft serve is familiar. But it’s got to have a little, fun twist that you’ve never thought of before,” JC said.
The Olsens plan on bringing Fizwip to more theme parks. But for now, their focus is bringing their brand of whimsy to their hometown — with the help of their genie business partner.
“We’re living in that world of reality, but we’re always throwing a little twist at it,” David said.
