Graeter's Ice Cream, Cincinnati,Ohio

Graeter’s is the oldest surviving ice cream manufacturer in the United States. It was founded in Cincinnati in 1870, and today they are the only company left that still makes ice cream using the French Pot method. This Graeter’s, in the upscale Hyde Park neighborhood, opened in 1922. Their secret recipe of fresh cream and egg custard is swirled along the chilled sides of a slowly spinning French Pot freezer. As the blend thickens, a blade scrapes the sides of the pot, folding the ice cream into itself. Their fresh ingredients are then added to complete their unique flavors. The folding process prevents air from whipping into the ice cream and this accounts for the extremely dense and creamy consistency. The ice cream’s extreme density also makes it too thick to be packed by any automated method, so each pint must be hand-packed. Graeter’s uses fresh cream from local dairy's that don’t use artificial growth hormones. They also use premium hand-selected Oregon triple-washed black raspberries, 100% cane sugar and no high fructose corn syrup, no hydrogenated oils so no trans-fats, premium hand-selected Oregon Totem strawberries, 100% Arabica coffee beans, and Madagascar Vanilla beans. Graeter’s also uses Peter’s Chocolate, the World’s oldest chocolate maker founded in 1875. Swiss founder, Daniel Peter, invented milk chocolate. I chose two scoops of vanilla in a cup. The vanilla was creamy and full of rich vanilla bean flavor, one of the best vanilla ice creams I have ever tasted. I could not leave Graeter’s only having tasted two scoops of their incredible vanilla, so I had a vanilla milkshake to go. It too was outstanding; it had the same creamy and incredibly rich vanilla bean flavor. I will definitely add this vanilla shake to the Best of the American Realm of milkshakes. Although I didn’t get a chance to sample it, I noticed that Graeter’s had a brand new product from Snyder’s of Hanover, a pretzel ice cream cone. I had never before seen that very unique offering.