Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams

Jeni Britton-Bauer is the founder and chief creative officer of Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.

Before starting Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Jeni Britton-Bauer attended Ohio State University and studied art history and fine art. While in college, she was given vials of scented chemicals by a chemistry graduate colleague, which led her to gather essential oils, make her own perfume, and sell her perfumes for a few years.[2]

Bauer experimented with the essential oil of cayenne pepper and combined it with chocolate ice cream to make spicy frozen chocolate. She determined that ice cream was "the perfect carrier of scent," and thus began making other flavors of ice cream with essential oils. Two weeks later, she decided that she wanted to make scented ice cream as a business and dropped out of Ohio State.[2]

Britton-Bauer collaborated with a colleague and attempted multiple times to open a stall in Columbus's North Market area. However, according to Bauer, the market rejected them because it did not believe that an ice cream store had a place in their market. According to her, The North Market reconsidered when PBS aired a feature about ice cream being sold at a market.[2]

In 1996, Britton-Bauer opened her first storefront in the North Market area of Columbus, dubbed Scream Ice Creams. Britton-Bauer worked there for several years while further developing flavors[3] Some of the first few flavors were Salty Caramel, Wildberry Lavender, and Queen City Cayenne. After four years, Britton-Bauer closed Scream and attended the ice cream short course at Penn State.[2]

The first Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams opened in 2002, also in the North Market. This establishment offered a wider variety of serving options than Scream, which provided customers one flavor at a time. Within the first year, the brother of her then-boyfriend (now husband) Charly joined the company, making him the third member of the company in addition to Jeni and Charly.[2]

Joe Biden at Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams' flagship location in Columbus, Ohio, to discuss fair pay efforts in 2016.

Biden visits Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Washington, D.C. location in 2022.

In 2005, a state regulator alerted Jeni's that they did not have a proper license required to produce ice cream in a retail location. Britton-Bauer and her colleagues elected to open a separate ice cream production facility.

In 2006, Jeni opened her first store outside of North Market and continued to expand into other locations in the area. In 2009, Jeni, Charly, and Charly's brother decided that they needed a CEO. Their close friend John Lowe quit his job at General Electric to become the company's first CEO.[2]

The brand partnered with Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey in 2022 for the non-alcoholic 'Boozy Eggnog' flavor.[4] More brand collaborations took place in the following years. A 'Biscuits With the Boss' flavor was created in promotion of the Ted Lasso television series.

On April 23, 2015, Jeni's initiated a recall of all products due to food safety concerns and a possible presence of Listeria in their products.[5] Jeni's initiated a second listeria-related recall in June 2015, connected to the first recall.[6]

In the listeria aftermath, Jeni wrote a blog post introducing the implementation of a testing and control program, writing: "I mentioned that our program was aggressive: we did almost 200 swabs every day for two months in our 2,000-square-foot production kitchen—almost "1,000 times" beyond the industry recommendation—to understand where the Listeria was coming from and eliminate it."[7] "We have multiple third parties inspecting our kitchen just to make sure that we’re doing everything right."..."When I look back, I think of it as a time when we were kind of clarified by fire and we learned about ourselves."[3]

As of May 2022, "Scoop Shops" are located in fourteen states and the District of Columbia.[8] Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams pints are also distributed in over 3,000 high-end groceries and markets nationwide, as well as through mail order.[9] In 2021, the company brought in $95.7 million.[3]

Jeni's received a positive review on the "Hot and Spicy" episode of Food Network's show The Best Thing I Ever Ate (2010).[10] It was reviewed in The Washington Post (2011),[11] The Huffington Post (2012),[12] and U.S. News & World Report, who ranked it #1 in America in 2012.[13] The Chicago Tribune (2011) said "Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is gaining a national reputation for producing superior desserts made of milk sourced from a family farm in Ohio's Appalachian region."[14] Time magazine said it "has a large cult following among Ohio émigrés and ice cream geeks."[15]

The Atlantic positively reviewed it saying "Jeni's flavors are not successful simply because they are irreverent and ground-breaking. They work because a great deal of effort has gone into their crafting—what at first glance seems whimsical, upon first bite is proven artisanal."[16] It has also been positively reviewed in The New York Times (2011),[17] and by Today (2012).[18] In 2007, The New York Times said Jeni's had "surpassed the creativity of all other ice cream makers with its versions like goat cheese and Cognac fig sauce."[19]

In 2012, Jeni's received a Sofi Gold Award in the "Dessert or Dessert Topping" category for Lemon Frozen Yogurt.[20] In 2013, Jeni's won another Sofi Gold Award in the "Outstanding Product Line" category.[21] Beginning with her early days at Scream and continuing to the present, Britton Bauer's ice cream has incorporated products local to Columbus and Ohio, including milk, fruit, and whiskey.[2][22]

Fast Company named Jeni Britton Bauer one of the Most Creative People in Business in 2018.[23] In 2019, Inc. listed Jeni's as #2329 on its Inc. 5000 list.[24]

Britton Bauer received an honorary doctorate in business administration from Ohio State, the university she had attended but left in her sophomore year to pursue a career in ice cream, after serving as the commencement speaker at the summer 2016 graduation.[25][26]

In 2011, Jeni Britton Bauer published her first cookbook, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams at Home, which became a New York Times best-seller; and The Wall Street Journal called it the "homemade-ice cream-making Bible." Britton Bauer won a James Beard Foundation Award for her cookbook. It's the highest honor for writing about culinary arts and food.[27] The book was also nominated for the Goodreads Choice Awards Best Food & Cookbooks that year.[28]

Britton Bauer published Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream Desserts in 2014 "to provide an audience with the tools to craft their own ice cream-based creations".[29]

In March 2019, Britton Bauer published her third cookbook, The Artisanal Kitchen: Perfect Homemade Ice Cream: The Best Make-It Yourself Ice Creams, Sorbets, Sundaes, and Other Desserts.[30]

• Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams
• How I Built This - Jeni Britton Bauer NPR, 2018/02/28