Industry Retail | Type Restaurant | |
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Founder Louis Graeter & Regina Graeter Number of locations 38 company-owned stores & 12 franchise stores Area served Retail stores serve Greater Cincinnati and northern Kentucky; Columbus, Dayton, and Cleveland, Ohio; the Louisville metropolitan area in Kentucky and Indiana; Lexington, Kentucky; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Chicago, Illinois. Pints are sold in grocery stores nationwide. Key people Louis and Regina Graeter (Founders)
Chip Graeter, Bob Graeter, and Richard Graeter (Owners) Products Ice Cream, Pastries, Candies, and much more. Headquarters Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Founded 1870, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States Profiles | ||
Graeter s ice cream how it s made
Graeter's produces craft ice cream using the small batch, artisanal, French Pot process, dating back over a century. Graeter's own a regional chain of shops offering superpremium ice cream, baked goods, and candy which originated in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1870. Their thick, handcrafted ice cream has won the hearts of ice cream enthusiasts across the country as well as the respect of the nation’s most influential foodies. It has been featured on Food Network and has earned them many fans, including Oprah Winfrey, Harry Connick Jr, and influential food writers such as David Rosengarten of Rosengarten Report. It has been called "the best ice cream in the world," and "the best out there," and won "Best Sweet" at the 2014 Food Network South Beach Wine and Food Festival.
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History
Graeter's was founded in 1870 by Bavarian immigrants Regina and Louis "Charlie" Graeter. After Charlie's death, Regina took over the business, opening new locations and building a name for the business. Graeter's remains a family-owned and operated business, staying true to Regina's stubborn passion for quality and continues to produce ice cream in two-gallon batches using the French Pot freezers.
"French pot" process
Graeter's ice cream is made using the French Pot method. This is a slow, small batch process making only two gallons at a time. It creates ice cream that is rich, creamy and dense. Graeter's also uses this method to create chocolate chips completely different from other brands. Gourmet chocolate is then poured over the now creamy ice cream leaving an incredibly delicious shell of chocolate. It is then broken up and mix it into the ice cream, resulting in totally unique and one of a kind chunks of chocolate chip.
The French Pot process begins with the mix being placed into a chilled, spinning French Pot.
Each batch of ice cream is only about two gallons (7.6 L) and is thus very labor-intensive. The ice cream comes out of the French Pot ready to eat. While delicious, it is too thick to pump into pint (473 mL) containers like most ice cream makers. The only solution is an old fashioned one, roll up your sleeves and get to hand-packing. On a typical day they hand pack nearly 20,000 pints, with their fastest packers averaging up to 15 pints a minute.
Graeter's locations
Graeter’s has more than 50 retail stores and ships over 300,000 pints annually for online mail order sales. Graeter’s can also be found in more than 6,000 grocery stores in 47 states. There are about 50 Graeter's locations spread across five states, primarily located in the Midwest. The major cities the stores are located in are: Cincinnati, Dayton, and Columbus, Ohio and Covington, Lexington, and Louisville, Kentucky. There are also stores in Chicago, Illinois, Indianapolis, Indiana, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Cleveland,Ohio. Outside of their locations, Graeter's also has shipping options. It can be packaged in dry ice in a Styrofoam container and shipped anywhere in the U.S. The cost is $79.95 for 6 pints or $119.95 for 12 pints.