At the beginning of November, Homestead Creamery’s Cream Team returned to the National Ice Cream Retailers Association (NICRA) ice cream convention, this year, in Virginia Beach. The NICRA is a trade organization whose members are in retail ice cream, soft serve, frozen custard, gelato, and frozen yogurt businesses. In addition to attending workshops, we exhibited in the trade show, Donnie Montgomery, Homestead Creamery’s Chairman of the Board was elected to the Board of Directors, and our ice cream won accolades for being some of the best.
Here’s the Scoop
At the Ice Cream Clinic Review, participants pre-submitted samples of their ice cream to be taste tested by Dr. Tonya Schoenfuss of University of Minnesota. The ice cream is scored according to color, texture, taste, bacterial count, and many other variations. The blue ribbon is the highest award, with Red Ribbons and White Ribbons following.
We humbly accepted the White Ribbon Award for our all natural Vanilla Ice Cream, a Red Ribbon for our all natural Strawberry Ice Cream, and honorable mention in the “Best New Flavor” category for our Grandma’s Cookie Jar! Haven’t tried that one yet? Well, you’ll just have to come visit the Farm Market and grab a scoop or two.
More Than a Competition
This convention is much more than a place to share your best flavors for a prize. It’s a place where experts in the trade come to swap ideas, discover new ways of creating delicious dairy, and celebrating one another. There are scholarships given, promotion awards distributed to the most clever efforts, and even a “Person of the Year” award for those who have given the biggest contribution to the industry.
We’re always making our best effort to improve our products, customer service, and create new flavors that delight our customers. As long as you’re still inspiring us to create, we’ll continue to attend wonderful conventions like this!
If you’d like to read our “Promotion of the Year” story about Shaketember, you can visit their website.