What if Ben and Jerry never got together? What if two Polish immigrants from the Bronx never decided to make up the name Häagen-Dazs? It's truly hard to imagine an ice cream market in which these brands never came to be. But did you know Blue Bell, another one of the top ice cream producers in the U.S.
, used to not sell the stuff at all? Yes, in fact, when the company first came together it was strictly focused on making butter using excess cream from local farmers. Blue Bell began as the Brenham Creamery Company, founded by a group of local Texas businessmen in 1907. It did not start making or selling ice cream until 1911.
Ice cream didn't become the company's main focus until decades later. Eventually, the Brenham Creamery Company became the Blue Bell Creameries we know today, but that was not without some major business decisions along the way. How Blue Bell started making ice cream The Brenham Creamery Company started off as a cooperative with the goal of putting excess cream to good use by producing butter made with sour cream.
The idea to start came from the creamery's manager at the time, H. C. Hodde, who wanted to find a use for sweet cream.
When ice cream production first started in 1911, it was made arduously using a hand crank that would yield two gallons of ice cream at a time. The ice cream was then delivered by horse and buggy and had to be eaten quite quickly before it melted. Despite the strenuous manufacturing and delivery method, the ice cream was a big hi.
