As promised earlier this week, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams has restarted their production kitchen after a voluntary shutdown following a listeria issue. The problems have been resolved through equipment upgrades and procedural changes, and founder Jeni Britton Bauer shared news of retail reopenings on the company’s blog today:
“BIG news — we’re making ice cream again,” she shared. “And our shops will reopen in time for Memorial Day weekend—next Friday, May 22, at 7 pm.”
Initial flavors that will be back in stores first include Salty Caramel, Root Beer and a new, limited-edition Sun-Popped Corn.
“We’ll be adding more flavors in the coming weeks as we return to full production and as summer progresses,” explained Bauer. “Think of it as a rolling summer.”
Bauer said that the shutdown has taken a toll on the company and admitted that they came close to not reopening at all.
“As a result, we have a new appreciation for life,” she wrote today. “The feeling today and going forward is a genuine gratefulness just to be here, doing what we do.”
Bauer also informed customers that in order to ramp production back up, they’re temporarily partnering with Smith’s Dairy in Orrville to help with production.
“Smith’s had already been sourcing raw cream and grass-grazed milk and pasteurizing it for us,” said Bauer. “While we work on getting back on our feet, Smith’s offered to use our recipes primarily to make our frozen yogurts. We accepted their offer without hesitation. They will use the same ingredients we’ve always used: Ohio grass-grazed milk and biodynamic organic yogurt from Seven Stars Farm in Pennsylvania. In addition to having the same flavor, these frozen yogurts will have the same viscosity, ice crystal structure, and air content of our ice creams.”
For more information, visit jenis.com/blog/.
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