Almost everyone in Manitowoc and the surrounding area knows about the Cedar Crest cow, Bernice, but what else do you know about the second largest ice cream manufacturer in Wisconsin? Seehafer News was able to sit down with the President of Cedar Crest Ice Cream, Ken Kohlwey, and he gave us a bit of a history lesson. He and his brothers were originally going to distribute ice cream in the Milwaukee area, in 1976, but their manufacturer decided to stop making ice cream. The brothers then decided to move in a different direction. He told us, “We were able to buy a little ice cream company in Oshkosh Wisconsin called Smith Ice Cream. We were there until 1988 because on December 31st 1987 we were able to purchase this ice cream plant from Land O’ Lakes. We’ve been here since 1988 we started production here the third week in March 1988 and have been growing ever since.”
The plant has undergone a lot of renovation to be able to keep up with the high demand of ice cream. Ken explained, saying, “We’ve work extremely hard to stay up with the times over the years. We’ve knocked out walls, we’ve tried to make things fit better. The last few years we’ve added a couple of silos for our mixes. We’ve invested a little over $1.2 million into our refrigeration system. Bernice had a makeover about 3 or 4 years ago. We’ve tried to constantly upgrade our business here and we want to stay here. It’s a good area to be in and we like being here and being part of the community.”
Cedar Crest is known for their vast variety of flavors, from simple vanilla to complex flavors such as Deep Dish Apple Pie. When you visit their parlor, there is a plethora of choices, but the big question is, how many are there? Ken told us, “Just in our 3 gallon tubs alone, is about 80 flavors. Then we’ve got additional flavors in sherbet, additional in no sugar added, yogurt, so in total I would say we have about 100 or 110 flavors right now in our 3 gallon tubs.”
Cedar Crest Ice Cream is located at 2000 South 10th Street in Manitowoc. Their parlor is open from 11:30 AM until 9:00 PM every single day. The favorites of the ladies at the front desk at Seehafer Broadcasting is mint chocolate chip. Let us know what your favorite is.
