Sweet Cream Co.
Jessica Kastner was an interior designer and her husband was an architect. But when the housing market crashed in 2008 and they saw a gap in the market in Columbia—for fresh, natural ice cream—she turned to pairing flavors and he turned to designing the recipes that brought those flavors to life.
“My husband and I don’t eat artificial colors and we wanted to incorporate local ingredients, fresh herbs, things people hadn’t heard of,” says Kastner, who owns Sweet Cream Co. with her husband Joe. The couple owns a farm about an hour from Columbia and they grow the herbs that end up in ice cream, including rosemary, tarragon, basil, mint, lavender. A local organic dairy farmer provides the milk for the ice creams.
“I love to pair things together so I will come up with the flavors and my husband figures out how to make them,” Kastner says. “So, if I’m growing something at home like tarragon, I try to see what would pair with that. I also try to pay attention to what larger cities are doing with food in general,like if they are using figs or goat cheese, we will try to incorporate that into an ice cream.”
The pair make small batches in a kitchen on-site and she says that has meant flavors sell out quickly. As a result, some flavors like Madagascar Vanilla and Dark Chocolate have become perennials on the menu, and she also likes to include four non-dairy sorbets. Another regular item is the “Cup of Awesome,” a blend of a cold-brewed coffee latte and the cocoa powder used in the dark chocolate ice cream. The item is so popular, they’re making a hot version for winter months.
“It’s a coffee-hot chocolate hybrid and it’s named after the first words that came out of my mouth when I tasted it,” she says.
The pair loves animals and their menu includes something for the canine family members as well—a frozen treat created in consultation with the family vet that includes yogurt, honey and peanut butter. “It costs a dollar, and we match the dollar to give to animal rescues,” she says, adding that they’ve raised more than $10,000 for local animal charities.
Kastner says she doesn’t want to speculate on what comes next, she just wants to relax a bit and watch the children who come into the shop grow through the years. And she wants to keep collaborating with her husband. “My husband always says we are like spaghetti and waffles,” she says. “I am spaghetti because I am all over the place constantly. He is like a waffle, very structured.”
