Cuisinart Cool Combo Ice Cream Maker and Snow Cone Machine Review: Two Frozen Treats, One Countertop Appliance

The Cuisinart Cool Combo does exactly what the name promises: it churns genuinely great homemade ice cream, and it shaves ice for snow cones. The ice cream side works the way Cuisinart’s freezer-bowl machines have always worked, which means planning ahead – the bowl needs a day in the freezer and the base needs a couple hours in the fridge. Put in that prep, though, and you get ice cream that tastes great and a shaved ice function that impressed the whole family. At $99.95 for both functions, it’s an easy recommendation for families who want frozen treats at home.

The Cuisinart Cool Combo Ice Cream Maker and Snow Cone Machine (ICE-CMB10) is a $99.95 countertop appliance that tries to cover two frozen dessert bases at once. On one side, it’s a traditional Cuisinart freezer-bowl ice cream maker with a 1.5-quart capacity. On the other, it’s a snow cone machine that shaves ice for cones and slushes. The pitch is a summer’s worth of frozen treats from a single unit that doesn’t take two spots in your cabinet.

Cuisinart sent us a review sample of the Cool Combo, and we ran both functions with the family over several batches.

Quick Specs:

• Model: ICE-CMB10
• Capacity: 1.5-quart freezer bowl
• Functions: Ice cream / gelato / sorbet churning, plus shaved ice for snow cones
• Mix-In Feature: Top feed chute for fruit, nuts, candy, cookies, and syrups
• Controls: One-button operation
• Safety: Easy-lock lid with interlock
• Color: White
• Warranty: 3-year limited
• Price: $99.95

The included ice tray

If you’ve used a Cuisinart ice cream maker before, you already know the drill here, because the Cool Combo Cuisinart Cool Combo works the same way as the older models. The bowl has liquid sealed inside its insulated walls, and that liquid must freeze solid before the bowl can do anything. That means you put the bowl in the freezer about a day before you want ice cream.

There’s no way around this, and it’s the single biggest thing to understand before you buy. This is not an appliance that makes ice cream because you decided at 8 PM that you want ice cream. It’s an appliance that makes ice cream because you thought about it yesterday. If you have the freezer space to just leave the bowl in there permanently, the friction mostly disappears, but that’s a chunk of freezer real estate you’re committing to dessert.

The base also needs its own head start. Make your ice cream base, then refrigerate it for at least a couple hours before churning. Between the bowl and the base, homemade ice cream on this machine is a two-stage project, not a same-hour one.

Once the prep is done, the actual churning is the easy part. Pour the chilled base into the frozen bowl, lock the lid, hit the button, and let it run for about 20 minutes. That’s it, no babysitting, no adjusting, no second button to find.

The results are excellent. The ice cream comes out very nicely: smooth, properly frozen, with a texture that reads as real homemade ice cream rather than a soft, soupy approximation. And it tastes great. My family was very happy with the results, which is ultimately the metric that matters for a $99.95 dessert appliance.

Twenty minutes is also a reasonable churn window. It’s long enough that you’re not hovering over it, short enough that dessert doesn’t become an evening-long commitment once the prep is behind you.

Pouring the ice cream base in the bowl using the ingredient funnel

The lid has a slot at the top for adding mix-ins mid-churn. Drop in candy, cookies, nuts, or fruit, and the blade crushes them as they go in, then churns the pieces through the rest of the batch.

It works well. The blade does break the add-ins down, and they distribute through the ice cream rather than clumping at the top. Cuisinart clearly built this as a headline feature, and mechanically it delivers on what it claims.

That said, I’d call it a bit unnecessary. You can stir mix-ins into a finished batch yourself in about fifteen seconds, and you get more control over the size of the pieces that way. The slot is a nice convenience, and it’s genuinely fun for kids who want to watch their candy get pulled into the machine, but it isn’t the reason to buy this thing. It’s a good feature, not a killer one.

Cleanup is where the added functionality costs you something. Older Cuisinart ice cream makers are about as simple as an appliance gets: bowl, paddle, lid, done. The Cuisinart Cool Combo adds the crushing blade and the mix-in assembly on top of that, and each piece has to come apart and get washed after a batch.

None of it is difficult, but there’s noticeably more to deal with. Sticky ice cream base gets into the blade area, and the mix-in section has more nooks than a plain paddle does. If you’re coming from a simpler model, expect cleanup to take longer than you’re used to. It’s the trade-off for fitting two machines into one housing, and it’s worth knowing before you commit. The parts count is the quiet tax on the extra features.

The snow cone side surprised me. The blade did a good job shaving ice into thin pieces, and the texture is the part worth calling out. It feels good in your mouth, light rather than gritty or chunky.

What comes out isn’t purely shaved ice. It’s a mix of shaved and crushed, with finer flakes alongside slightly larger crushed bits. We liked that combination. Pure powder-fine shaved ice can go watery fast; the crushed pieces add structure and something to actually crunch on. It reads more like a real concession-stand snow cone than a cup of slush.

This is also the function with no advance planning attached. You need ice, which you already have. That makes the snow cone the one you’ll actually reach for on a hot afternoon without thinking, which is a nice counterweight to the day-ahead ice cream routine.

Living with the Cuisinart Cool Combo means adjusting to its rhythm. Ice cream is a planned event: bowl in the freezer, base in the fridge, churn the next day. Snow cones are the spontaneous option. In practice, the two functions ended up serving completely different moods in our house, which is a better argument for the combo than “two appliances in one” is on its own.

The one-button operation is genuinely one button, which matters more than it sounds when kids want to be involved. The interlock lid means it won’t run unless it’s locked down properly, so handing off the operation isn’t nerve-wracking.

Across our batches, the ice cream was consistently good, and the family was consistently happy with it. That’s the whole job.

You’ll probably be happy with the Cuisinart Cool Combo if you like the idea of homemade ice cream and you’re the type to plan dessert a day out, or if you have the freezer space to just keep the bowl frozen full-time. It’s a strong fit for families, especially ones with kids who want to pick their own mix-ins. And at $99.95 for both an ice cream maker and a snow cone machine, the value case is easy.

You might regret buying the Cuisinart Cool Combo if you want ice cream on demand. The freeze-ahead bowl is a real constraint, and no amount of good churning performance changes it. If your freezer is already packed, that’s a second strike. And if you only ever wanted an ice cream maker, a simpler single-purpose model will get you the same quality ice cream with fewer parts to wash. The Cool Combo’s extra hardware only pays for itself if you’ll actually use the snow cone side. Compressor-based ice cream makers skip the frozen bowl entirely, but they cost several times as much and take up far more counter space.

The Cuisinart Cool Combo makes very good ice cream and legitimately good shaved ice, and it does both from one compact unit for under a hundred dollars. The mix-in slot is a fun extra rather than a must-have, and the day-ahead freezer bowl is the price of admission on this style of machine. If you can live with the planning, this is an easy way to make frozen treats the whole family enjoys.

The Cuisinart Cool Combo Ice Cream Maker and Snow Cone Machine retails for $99.95; it is available directly from the manufacturer and other retailers, including Amazon.

Source: Manufacturer-supplied review sample

What I Like: Ice cream comes out very nicely and tastes great; Shaves ice into thin pieces that feel good in your mouth; Nice mix of shaved and crushed ice for snow cones; Mix-in slot at the top crushes and churns add-ins right into the batch; One-button operation with a safety interlock lid; Churns a batch in about 20 minutes; 1.5-quart bowl is a family-sized batch; Two appliances in one, at $99.95; Compact enough to live on a counter; 3-year limited warranty

What Needs Improvement: Freezer bowl needs to freeze a full day ahead, no spontaneous ice cream; Base still needs a couple hours in the fridge before churning; The mix-in slot works well but feels a bit unnecessary; More parts to clean than older, simpler models thanks to the crushing blade and mix-in assembly; Freezer bowl takes up meaningful freezer space between uses