Blue Bell Creamery

Where I'm from, we are pretty serious about our beaches, barbecue, and strawberries.
I love this about home.

Did you know that Texans are very serious about their ice cream? I did not. But, who am I to complain?
I can be serious about ice cream! :) Ya know, when in Rome...

We took a little drive to the  Blue Bell Creamery.

I was bummed to find out that you can't take photos during the tour, but I did get some cutesy ones outside and in the parlor.

We even learned a few things about the company. It is field trip, ya know!

At this original plant in Brenham, TX, there are 850 employees and they all get free ice cream.
There is almost no employee turnover. Coincidence? I think not.
Oh, my word. I would be 400 pounds.

While we were eating our free scoop, we saw a group of about 15 employees come in, get a scoop of ice cream, and go into a little meeting room! What?? That would make meetings so much better!

Also, scoops of ice cream are $1 a scoop there. No tax, even. Just a buck. I love this place!

The company started in 1907 making only butter. It is still owned by the original family today. The
grandson is the CEO.

There has never, in 104 years, been a layoff at Blue Bell. Yay for capitalism!

The ice cream is produced from 7am-4pm, Monday - Friday. They do not work on weekends. It's a family company. I dig that.

I can feel myself getting more and more serious about ice cream already!

The machine we looked at pumps out 50 1/2 gallons per minute. The plant produces 350,000 1/2 gallons per day. The little Country Cones, 160 per minute and the Rainbow Freeze Bar, 180 per minute.

It takes 60, 000 dairy cows a day to make the main ingredient in the ice cream. Whoa.

All the milk comes from cows within a few miles of the plant and all the dairies are family owned and operated.

By the way, Blue Bell is still making 1/2 gallons. The others have reduced their carton size.

The employees that work the conveyor belt and machines switch out every 30 minutes. I really dig that. Y'all know I was asking all kinds of questions about employees and if they are happy and what not.

We learned that each year, the 5 lowest selling flavors are discontinued and they roll out new flavors. But, if you call or write, and there is enough demand for a certain flavor, they will bring it back! Yay for Supply and Demand!

Our little tour guide was so cute! She was very knowledgeable on all things Blue Bell.

I've not really been an ice cream connoisseur, but I definitely feel like I'll be a little more brand loyal given all that family talk!


~LOVE~
Melissa