From our July/August '15 issue: The year 1865 was a time of national unrest, with the Civil War drawing to a close, but the country was hopeful, and ready for change. During that time, a tiny land-grant college called the Farmers’ High School in State College, Pa., just 10 years old, acquired a small herd of cows and went into dairy farming. This is the story of the Creamery’s first 150 years.
"Ice cream can be fragile in its flavors," says Tom Palchak ’80 Agr. Palchak, the longtime manager of the Creamery, is talking about that fine line in food science—how things can change very quickly, for better or worse—something he’s certainly experienced in his 29-year career there. He’s sitting in a third-floor conference room in the Food Science Building on Curtin Road, home to the world-famous Berkey Creamery just downstairs, and it’s spring. Palchak is at the head of the table speaking to a dozen university employees, with another two on speaker phone, a group brought together to plan the sesquicentennial celebration of a treasured Penn State tradition: The Creamery. The particular agenda item he is addressing? Choosing a special anniversary ice cream flavor for the menu. (Fittingly, the public ultimately voted for Birthday Cake.)
The group takes turns to talk about different projects across campus: a big kickoff celebration scheduled to coincide with the arts festival; a small exhibit of Creamery artifacts at the library; brand-new packaging for the cartons; a glossy new website so ice cream can easily be purchased online. Palchak quietly listens to each of these updates, steadily keeping one hand on a “Keep Calm and Carry On” coffee mug. “I think this is going to be fantastic,” he eventually says.
This is a day that Palchak, and others, could have only imagined. Despite its storied past and impact on the industry (see “Ice Cream U" below), the Creamery was struggling when Palchak arrived in 1986. “It was losing money, living off a reserve, and there were conversations about how to close it,” he says. His first order of business was securing a $3 million loan from the university to renovate and replace equipment in Borland Lab. “We tore it down to a base and began to build it back up again,” he says. “With proper attention to detail and rigorous milk procedures, we turned it around.” It took a year or two, but the Creamery started to make money again, and that seven-year loan was repaid in three. Once the Creamery turned that corner, it never looked back.
The biggest growth took place in the 1990s and early 2000s. A restored relationship with Housing and Food Services increased purchase orders. Meanwhile, dozens of new ice cream flavors were created, like WPSU Coffee Break and Alumni Swirl. It was only a matter of time before the operation outgrew Borland Lab, and in August 2006 the Creamery left the 75-year-old building and moved into a new $22-million dollar facility.
The new digs have been good for business—just last year, the Creamery earned $7.5 million in wholesale and retail sales. Its roster is around 23 full-time employees and 90 part-time students. One of those full-time employees is Jim Brown, who has spent the last decade overseeing all of the retail sales, plus the training and development of employees. Brown remembers that transition into Berkey as a key turning point: “Now, we’re talking 3,700 square feet. We can put more than a couple people inside and more than a couple hundred people outside. And, now, people don’t just come here for ice cream and dairy products,” he says. “Because of that, we’ve turned from staff serving ice cream to serving people.”
People who are waiting in line for ice cream—even ice cream that is currently $3.50 per cone—are generally already pretty happy. And friendly, too: “The lines are part of the fun and ambience,” says Brown. “That’s where customers meet customers.”
There’s seemingly always a line at Berkey, the largest university creamery in the nation, where more than 700 milkshakes and 2,700 cones are served daily. “That’s no easy task,” says Palchak. “People thought that when we built the new store, the lines would disappear.” In fact, when the Berkey Creamery was being designed, the architect hired consultants to figure out how to move customers through quickly. They considered every detail, from where the customers enter the building to the location of napkin and spoon dispensers. “The design will not eliminate the lines on the busiest of days,” says Palchak. “But the lines move very, very quickly. It works.” Of course, ice cream is always doled out faster when ordered properly (see “The Perfect Order” below) or on a quiet weekend (see “5 Busiest Weekends” below).
“It’s kind of like going to Disney World and waiting in line to go onto a ride that you know you want to go on,” says Brown, adding that you never know who may be standing next to you. Shannon Clymer Barrett ’10 H&HD, who worked at the Creamery in both high school and college, remembers Joe Paterno visiting the store a few times every year. “When he walked in, everyone stopped what they were doing. One time, he walked up to the counter and ordered his cone—he always ordered Peachy Paterno,” she says. “But this time, he leaned over and whispered to me, ‘Don’t tell anyone, but my favorite flavor is actually strawberry.’ Then he started to laugh.”
Most customers have only visited the store. In fact, when I went to interview Palchak, I realized I had walked right by his office—just off the storefront—many times without noticing. He introduces me to a woman wearing a white lab coat and bouffant cap; Palchak explains that she is from a major beverage corporation and is using the quality-control lab on premises to test a new product. I ask her what she’s working on, but she’s hesitant to say. “Use whatever you need,” Palchak tells her as we leave to find another room to conduct the interview.
There are spaces like these that, behind the scenes, are as much a part of the Creamery as a Bittersweet Mint cone. Another example is Berkey’s production facility that receives tanks of milk daily from 10 p.m. to midnight—about 5 million pounds of milk annually. “We do most of our production when people are sleeping,” says Brown. “Things are so integrated and complex that you need dedicated guys who are willing to get up there early in the morning and late at night to produce the milk.”
Since its early days, the Creamery believed in building the dairy industry—not competing with it—and it still firmly practices the values of a public university. In that spirit, the Creamery readily shares its famous formula for ice cream online. And for more than 120 years, Penn State has hosted an ice cream short course every January, when 100-some students fly in from all over the world to spend a week learning about the latest techniques and technologies in the commercial ice cream industry. The course, believed to be the oldest continuing education course in the country, has been attended by reps from Baskin-Robbins, Breyers, Haagen-Dazs, and Hershey’s.
Research and teaching are the hallmarks of many involved in the Food Science department, but particularly Phil Keeney PhD ’55 Agr, an expert in cocoa chemistry, who developed and led the short course for 30 years. Keeney is one of two professors for whom a Creamery flavor is named; People magazine once called him the “Emperor of Ice Cream.” Today, the short course is more popular than ever—there’s already a waitlist of 60 people for the class next year.
It was Penn State’s correspondence course in making ice cream, which cost just $5, that gave Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield the acumen to launch Ben & Jerry’s in 1978. Greenfield couldn’t speak highly enough about the experience and had this to say at a Penn State Altoona lecture back in 2009: “The Penn State Creamery ice cream is legendary and deservedly so. Our ice cream isn’t really classic ice cream. Creamery ice cream is.”
During my interview with Palchak, a line forms in the store and extends out the front door. It’s the Friday of graduation weekend and the temperature reaches the 80s by noon, but, surprisingly, this isn’t a line for the cones. Instead, it’s a line for half-gallons—customers mostly made up of recent grads, just waiting—and wanting—to take a taste of the Creamery home. “More than the ice cream, this is a place to enjoy Penn State,” says Brown. “People bring people to the Creamery to show them Penn State.”
WAIT IN LINE
During peak weekends—when the line wraps out toward Bigler Road and the East Parking Deck—the wait could take 45 minutes. But the Creamery was designed to move customers quickly: It takes just a few minutes on average. Expert tip: For quick trips, the nearby East Parking Deck has free short-term parking for up to 30 minutes.
KNOW BEFORE YOU GO
Just inside, look for the day’s menu on the stand or back wall. The list includes two dozen options of ice cream and frozen yogurt. Just want a half-gallon from the freezer? Grab it and move to the two cashiers on the far right.
ORDER
Head to the cashiers. Say how many cones or dishes you want. Pay. If you’re getting a milkshake, tell the cashier the flavor and move toward the far station marked “3.”
PICK A FLAVOR
Pick an ice cream flavor at stations “1,” “2,” or “3.” (Can’t decide? Ask to try.) You’ll get two scoops to a cone—no mixing allowed. Purists forgo toppings, but blue and white sprinkles are available for a quarter.
EAT
The salesroom seats 100, but, weather permitting, opt for an outdoor table for an al fresco experience.
[1] A herd of 120 Holsteins is milked twice daily. Later, the milk is chilled, tested, and stored in silos.
[2] Ingredients like cream and sugar, plus powdered milk and a small amount of stabilizer, are added.
[3] The mixing tank heats the milk mixture and kills off harmful bacteria.
[4] The homogenizer cools the fluids and breaks down fat globules into a smooth texture.
[5] A tank cools the mixture to 37 degrees and holds it there for 24 hours.
[6] Liquid flavorings (e.g., strawberry, mint) are injected into the vats.
[7] The mix is aerated and pumped through a processing freezer, where temps drop to 21 degrees.
[8] In a long tube, dashers (or blades) constantly turn so the mix thickens.
[9] Whole ingredients like fruit, nuts, and candy are added.
[10] Ice cream is poured into a range of containers from Dixie cups to three-gallon tubs.
[11] The hardening room—set at a cool 35 degrees below—rapidly freezes the product.
[12] Ice cream is then moved to a tempering room, where it becomes soft enough to serve.
Fun Fact: “Donut,” age 9, is the Creamery’s oldest milking cow.
ARTS FESTIVAL
July 11–13
20,468 transactions
FOOTBALL VS. NORTHWESTERN
Sept. 26–28
9,100 transactions
BLUE-WHITE WEEKEND
April 11–13
8,591 transactions
FOOTBALL VS. UMASS
Sept. 19–21
8,436 transactions
GRADUATION
May 9–11
7,301 transactions
1865: The school starts its dairy history with a few cows and small dairy structure in the College Barns (above). The building—behind present-day Old Main—had just enough room for making cheese and butter.
1889: The state appropriates $7,000 for a new, one-story academic creamery near Ferguson Building, with cold-storage and cream-ripening rooms.
1892: Pennsylvania State College offers four- and eight-week dairy short courses that include lessons on making ice cream, making it the first collegiate institution to offer such instruction.
1904: The “State College Creamery” moves to Patterson Building, and produces milk that’s delivered to the town in horse-drawn carriages. The new building has modern equipment to study and improve dairy manufacturing, specifically pasteurization. Frank Knoll is named Creamery superintendent and continues in that role for nearly 40 years.
1920s: Ice cream research thrives at the Creamery under the direction of Andrew Borland 1909 Agr, Chester Dahle, and Francis J. Doan ’19, ’28 MS Agr.
1932: The Creamery moves down the road to the newly constructed Dairy Building (below, later named Borland Lab), which is bigger and closer to dairy barns. Through the 1940s and ’50s, a small fleet of Penn State Creamery trucks delivers milk locally. 1955: Dahle retires, but the University Creamery—as it is now called—adds another expert to its staff: Philip Keeney ’55 PhD Agr, who teaches the short course for the next 30 years. With the rise of supermarkets and improvements to home refrigerators and freezers, ice-cream demand increases. The Creamery, offering 24 flavors, adds a salesroom along Curtin Road in 1961 for walk-ins.
1975: Penn State’s Department of Food Science is created.
1978: Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield take a $5 Penn State correspondence course on making ice cream before launching Ben & Jerry’s later that year.
1986: Tom Palchak ’80 Agr succeeds Raymond Binkley ’55 Agr and becomes the sixth manager in Creamery history.
1987: “Peachy Paterno” debuts after the football team’s second national championship.
2006: The Creamery moves into the new $46-million Food Science building (below) with a spacious salesroom, modern processing plant, and plenty of classroom and lab space. The Berkey Creamery is named after Earl and Jeanne Berkey ’47 Agr, lead donors to the project.
Product photos by Bill Zimmerman.
FROM TOP LEFT: Bob Costas, Bill Cowher, Olympia Dukakis, Bill Clinton, and Martha Stewart. Other celebrity visitors to the Creamery include Jeff Gordon, Franco Harris, Coretta Scott King, Joe Pantoliano, Ed Rendell, Tom Ridge, Fred Rogers, John Amaechi, Lynn Swann, Todd Blackledge, Travis “T-Bone” Turner, Joe Paterno, the cast of “Jesus Christ Superstar," and the cast of Cirque du Soleil.
VANILLA
The Creamery’s best-selling flavor cuts no corners: It uses the gold standard of pure vanilla extracts, shipped in from Madagascar. There’s also no aftertaste, and in a good way—the sweetness lingers on your tongue.
COOKIES N CREAM
This flavor tips the scale with its Oreo add-ins—expect 12 percent of its composition to be solely cookie pieces—but they don’t crowd out the taste of the ice cream itself.
ALUMNI SWIRL
Candy-like Swiss mocha chips add interesting texture and crunch to a creamy blueberry-swirled vanilla ice cream.
PEACHY PATERNO
Take your time with Peachy Paterno: The subtle peach flavor is followed by a delayed nectarine aftertaste. The mouthfeel includes still-soft peach slices, and there’s a high—but pleasant—aroma thanks to its peach schnapps liqueur.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH
The infusion of a liquid cookie-dough flavoring gets you prepared for the gobs of classic cookie dough pieces and Wilbur chocolate chips.
STRAWBERRY
There are few surprises in this sweet, summery flavor—strawberry puree, strawberry sauce, and strawberry hunks.
RUSS “DIGS” ROSEBERRY
A complex recipe with strong fruit flavors: Three different berry sauces and whole strawberries are balanced by the vanilla ice cream and flecks of pure Wilbur dark chocolate.
BITTERSWEET MINT
A Creamery original. This 70-year-old recipe—which influenced the mint chocolate chip flavor worldwide—features real crème de menthe, mint-flavored ice cream, and Wilbur bittersweet chocolate chunks that carry a velvety release.
BUTTER PECAN
After the butter-almond-flavored ice cream has melted, large pecans from southern Georgia—buttered, roasted, and salted—add a whole new dimension to the sweet-meets-saltiness. (A Creamery staff favorite.)
PEANUT BUTTER SWIRL
The salty peanut butter sauce from North Carolina holds up nicely—both literally and figuratively—to the Creamery’s vanilla ice cream.
DEATH BY CHOCOLATE
Chocolate flakes, fudge, and swirl create a thick texture with explosive cocoa flavor.
KEENEY BEANY CHOCOLATE
Real vanilla beans from Madagascar and cocoa beans from Africa make this the Creamery’s most expensive ice cream. The chocolate ice cream is very dense, which makes for a slower (and lovely) melt. And the dark chocolate chips are pronounced, which makes for a lasting finish.
14.1 percent: Butterfat content in Creamery ice cream
Phoebe Seiverling DiBello ’04 H&HD studied hotel and restaurant management at Penn State and graduated from the Culinary Institute of America in 2005. She works as a corporate executive chef in Pittsburgh.
OTHER CREAMERY PRODUCTS FOR SALE: Salsa dip with bell peppers, onion, and garlic, 100% pure orange juice, chocolate milk, medium cheddar cheese, vitamin A & D milk, cheddar cheese with dill, cream cheese with strawberries, ricotta cheese, green tea with ginseng and honey, and boysenberry low-fat yogurt. Fact: 550,000 gallons of milk are produced annually.
Peaches: 16,000
Strawberries: 12,000
Wilbur Chocolate: 8,000
Cocoa Powder: 8,000
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Pieces: 7,436
Peanut Butter: 7,290
