From Field to Freezer with Alec's Ice Cream

Every year, Americans spend more than $5.5 billion on ice cream. Now there’s a way to indulge in better ‘scream while investing in better ag.

On this week’s deep-dive, we talk about:

Going From Field to Freezer with Alec’s Ice Cream

When you ask any adult about how they discovered their favorite subject, you’ll often hear early childhood stories that sparked a wave of borderline obsession.

For me, it was in grade school seeing science unfold like magic when a teacher changed the color of fire and sent a bottle hurling into the sky with homemade boosters in a single afternoon.

As I sat down with Alec Jaffe, founder of the world’s first “Regenerative Ag” ice cream company, I got to hear how two events would shape his future with strange precision.

Screaming for Ice Cream

Growing up in California, young Alec Jaffe was no stranger to agriculture in America. Several times a year, Jaffe and his family would load into the car and travel up the coast to his uncles’ farms in the northern part of the state.

He recalls that the most formative part of those journeys wasn’t the free labor he put in at vineyards and orchards. It was the vast stretches of the drive polluted by what looked like unending feedlots.

As an elementary-aged kid, Jaffe had no idea that those cattle supported California’s ~$7 billion dairy industry. He only saw and smelled how those cows lived. He didn’t know what to do about it, but he knew he wanted food production to look less destructive. This was experience #1.

When he wasn’t spending school vacations helping his uncles, Alec did what most kids do. He played sports, did classwork, and capped the day with a bowl of ice cream.

His love of the latter was strong — strong enough that when a grade school class project tasked him with creating a product, he knew exactly what he wanted to make. He broke out his parents’ old ice cream maker to develop his first sweet creation: peppermint-stick ice cream.

Jaffe didn’t turn into an ice cream-making prodigy overnight, but he earned the first dose of creating a product that customers absolutely love. This was experience #2.

Developing a Foundation For Better Ice Cream

In the years after the class project, Jaffe temporarily put down the ice cream maker to pick up a football, ultimately making his way to nearby USC as a preferred walk-on.

The first days of his college football career? Sobering.

He and I learned a lot of overlapping lessons in those locker rooms — something a former teammate of mine calls “The Walk-On Mentality”. Here’s Alec’s take on it:

Take out the football jargon, and that message could be confused with the mindset for starting a business.

After graduating and spending a couple of years developing sponsorships between sports teams and consumer-packaged-goods (CPG) companies, Alec would jump headfirst into his first startup journey.

As a non-technical co-founder in a tech company, Jaffe became the lead man for business development and sales. While software and ice cream don’t have too much in common, they both have to sell. Alec says that’s where he picked up the biggest takeaway from startup #1:

Even though this first venture wouldn’t turn into a massive success, Alec knew he caught “the startup bug” and began thinking about how he could turn his passions into a product.

In a late-night search for indulgent ice cream at the grocery store, lightbulbs went off. Jaffe’s two childhood ‘seed experiences’ began to sprout. Before he knew it, he had dusted off the ice cream maker and was back in the kitchen.

Tabletop Mixer to Ice Cream Factory

Alec’s grocery store search showed him three things about the state of ice cream in 2018.

1. Plant-based and non-dairy options were taking off

2. There were organic ice creams, but they were focused on classic family-oriented flavors. Nothing was targeting adult tastebuds.

3. Most of the adult brands were trying to be ‘healthy’ by going low-fat, a quality Alec and I both agree makes ice cream far less tasty.

When Alec entered that aisle, he wasn’t looking for a subpar dessert experience. He watched what he ate for every other meal. Dessert needed to be a way to ‘let loose’ and enjoy rich, creamy ice cream.

But the real differentiator Alec wanted? A product that invested in its supply chain, only sourcing from organic, pasture-raised dairy.

The next two years turned Jaffe into a ‘mad scientist’ for ice cream. He would spend his days experimenting with flavors, fat content, and pasture-raised ingredients to bring his vision to life.

He says the learning curve was steep:

When he found a product he was happy with, Jaffe teamed up with his brother, threw it in a pint, and hit the road to raise money from friends and family.

At the same time, a 4,000 sq. ft. ice cream factory in a small Californian town happened to go out of business, and both brothers’ lack of manufacturing experience didn’t keep them from buying out the facility.

With a little help from a factory consultant, they brought everything up to speed, learned how to operate the entire plant, and started making the indulgent flavors of ice cream that Alec loves. In the early days at the plant, Jaffe says there were several headaches that the team had to grow through.

First, they had to deal with equipment failures at inopportune times.

After they fixed their equipment, COVID hit.

Scaling Alec’s Ice Cream Through COVID

When a business spreads the word about its product with taste tests, a ban on in-store tastings certainly makes things tough. That’s when Alec came back to the lessons he learned as a walk-on and in his first startup.

Tapping into his ‘chutzpah’, Jaffe brought new accounts on one at a time. He would load his trunk with a cooler full of dry ice and pints, deliver orders, and stock freezer shelves by hand.

Just as things started to pick up, Alec’s dairy supplier went out of business, leaving them without their most important ingredient: milk.

Again, Alec got in the car. This time, he would find someone who thought about agriculture as he imagined as a young kid: a tool that can give back to the planet more than it takes away.

Ice Cream that Heals Soil

At Alexandre Family Farm, Blake and Stephanie Alexandre focus on two things: healthy soil and digestible milk.

Using holistic management, cows are moved to new grass several times per day. The added frequency lets grass stay in photosynthesis for most of the year. As a result, roots shoot deep into the soil and store massive amounts of carbon. When it rains, their soil becomes a sponge.

All of these management techniques make Alexandre Family Farm an oasis in drought-plagued California. They irrigate once per month, yet their pastures remain green and vibrant for several months longer than any surrounding properties.

The milk from Alexandre has another special quality. Most farms use a breed of dairy cow that produces A1 milk proteins, which are notoriously hard for people to digest. If you have a bad reaction to milk, you’re probably dealing with A1 proteins.

Milk from Alexandre Family Farm, however, only contains a digestible class of proteins called A2.

When Alec put this superior milk into his ice cream, he says it took it to another level.

He’s proud of what his product represents. “Between our milk and other raw ingredients, 98% of our finished product supports regenerative farmers.”

It’s a message that aligns with shoppers, too.

Alec and his team’s chutzpah attracted a new national distributor, several grocery stores, and more to come.

Now, when you’re in the mood for an indulgent dessert, you’ll be able to go to your local grocery store and have an ice cream that represents more than a sweet treat.

The only reaction you need?

We weren’t sponsored by Alec’s Ice Cream to write this post. We just believe in their mission to make better food.

If you’re with us, you’ll be able to find Alec’s in Sprouts Farmers Markets, New Seasons, and many other stores near you.

Do yourself a flavor favor and try their Nexty Award-winning Peanut Butter Fudge Honeycomb. It’ll change your life.

See you next week, fellow earthlings.

— Permacultured

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