2 days ago
This Beloved Texas Ice Cream Brand Has Been A Freezer Staple For Generations
If you're a Texas native, Blue Bell is the brand of ice cream you most likely have in your freezer. Even your grandparents might've grown up eating Blue Bell because this beloved ice cream brand is more than 100 years old. Originating in 1907 in Brenham, Texas, Blue Bell started as a farmers' cooperative called the Brenham Creamery Company that made butter and sour cream out of leftover dairy from the surrounding farms. By 1911, the creamery began producing ice cream in a hand-cranked metal can surrounded by cracked ice and it was delivered by horse and carriage to customers who had to gobble up this cold commodity the day it arrived.
By 1919, management changed hands, and the collective of farmers elected E.F. Kruse, a college-educated teacher who turned down a job as school superintendent to become the creamery's CEO. It was Kruse who changed the name to Blue Bell after a wild flower that grows around the region in 1930. Blue Bell survived the scarcities of World War II and began mass producing Blue Bell ice cream in the 1960s, when it became a household name not just around Brenham, but around the entire Lone Star State. Today, E.F. Kruse's grandson Paul Kruse is the CEO, and his children are following in their father's footsteps to make Blue Bell a family business for a fourth generation.
Read more: 15 Vintage Pie Flavors No One Remembers Anymore
Blue Bell Is As Popular As Ever
Despite a few hiccups like a 2015 recall due to a listeria outbreak, Blue Bell has remained a beloved brand in Texas and beyond. You can find Blue Bell factories and ice cream sold in 24 states; if you live in one, check out our ranking of 20 popular Blue Bell flavors. Blue Bell also offers unique flavors that cater to each specific state or region. For example, Blue Bell created a wildly popular key lime ice cream flavor for Floridians, and there was a limited-time flavor that mixed ice cream and Dr Pepper sherbet since the soda originated in Waco, Texas.
While new popular ice cream brands like Häagen Dazs, Van Leeuwen, and Ben & Jerry's have taken the country by storm, Texans still have a special place for Blue Bell in their hearts. For Texans growing up in the '90s, no birthday party was complete without individual-sized cups of homemade vanilla or Dutch chocolate to scoop out with wooden hourglass spoons to accompany a slice of cake. Whether part of public-school field trips or pit stops on a family road trip between Houston and Austin, kids and adults alike look forward to visiting the Blue Bell Creamery in Brenham, Texas. Blue Bell guides walk visitors through the factory to observe the mass production of ice cream, ending on a sweet note at the onsite scoop shop where you get a free cup of your favorite flavor.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.
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