Meet Jeni Britton of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeni Britton. Jeni’s responsible for some of the BEST ice cream we’ve ever had.

Hi Jeni, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started making ice cream in 1996 when I was 22 years old. I opened my first shop, called Scream, in the North Market, just north of downtown Columbus, where I spent 10 years perfecting recipes.

Going back even further, it was really the discovery of flavor that led me to ice cream. Throughout high school and into college, I worked at a French bakery and was inspired to start making my own sweets at home. I toyed with the idea of starting my own American-style bakery, but something was missing.

At this time, I was also studying art and art history at Ohio State University. I had started collecting scents and essential oils and blending my own perfumes. I began cooking with essential oils and then one day I had the idea to use ice cream to carry the scent. I bought ice cream and blended some of my favorite oils into it—like the oil of cayenne, which had no scent, only a burning heat.

At that moment, the sky opened up and I knew my future. I didn’t know how long it would take, how much money, or how many tries, but I knew I was going to dedicate everything to ice cream.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Like all great adventures, the road has definitely not been smooth. I quit art school to open my first ice cream shop, Scream. Every day, I tweaked and honed recipes while serving customers and operating the business. Despite all my hard work and passion, I had to close the shop four years after its opening.

I learned so much from that failure and decided the next time around I would do things a little differently. I immediately began working on a business plan for what would become Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. I had been thinking too much like an artist—making whichever flavors I wanted to make each day. Because I didn’t have consistency, our customers had no “craveable reason to return.” I learned that entrepreneurship is an act of co-creation with your customers.

So when I opened Jeni’s, I made a commitment to always have in stock the flavors that I knew people loved—like Salty Caramel, and Wildberry Lavender—and to make room for when people loved one of my new flavors, like Texas Sheet cake. So when people crave our Brambleberry Crisp, we’ve always got it and we have something new they might fall in love with. This tweak and a few others made all the difference.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams is a company devoted to making the finest ice creams the world has ever known. Over the last 20 years, we have strived to make one-of-a-kind flavors using Direct and Fair Trade ingredients and super fresh milk from family dairy farms.

We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
Many people are afraid of risk. I am not one of those people. Jeni’s wouldn’t exist if I didn’t take a risk by quitting art school—literally getting up and walking out of class one day—to start my first ice cream business back in 1996. It’s easy to package the founder story or origin story into this sweet narrative about the big moments.

But also, the truth is it’s the little moments. I went to work each day against all odds, for years. Every single day was a choice, a risk. Anyone can do what I did, but it’s true what they say—you will leave all your blood, sweat, and tears on the arena floor. I am grateful every day for that young woman who somehow believed in herself enough to choose the hard path instead of the easy one.

Not a day goes by that I don’t have a conversation with someone about a cool idea they are afraid to pursue. I tell them to have two lenses. One for the distant future, when your idea is fully realized (your vision), and one for the single step you can take today. Everything between those two points is as tangled as a bowl of spaghetti. But you’ll figure it out as you go, I promise. You are more capable than you will likely ever find out.

In general, in life, I love to explore and make new discoveries. You can’t do that if you are afraid of failing.

Contact Info:

• Website: jenis.com

Image Credits
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream