Graeter’s Ice Cream: An Irresistible History

Historians may not agree on when or where ice cream was first developed, but there is little debate that one of the best versions of this sweet treat today is made by Graeter’s Ice Cream in Cincinnati. Louis Charles Graeter started his ice cream business in 1870, hand churning the concoction in a cylinder pot set in a larger bucket of ice and salt, a contraption known as the French pot. The ice cream business in America has evolved to favor mass production, but little has changed in the way Graeter’s makes ice cream today, much to the delight of the company’s many thousands of devotees. Graeter’s is churned from the same mix of cream, sugar and eggs, still made in two-gallon batches and still owned by the same family, now in its fourth generation. Journey with Robin Davis Heigel, food editor with the Columbus Dispatch, as she recounts the history of the company that has enchanted millions of taste buds across the country.