UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The celebration of the Penn State Berkey Creamery’s 150th anniversary kicks into high gear with the start of the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts at the University Park campus and downtown State College.
Visitors to the Creamery’s regular storefront and its festival tent on the mall will be able to sample the new anniversary flavor, Birthday Cake, along with other flavors as they try to fill one of the new Creamery passports.
According to Tom Palchak, the Creamery’s manager, the new flavor is a yellow cake batter ice cream with blue frosting swirls and frosted cookie freckles. Ice cream fans picked the birthday cake flavor over strawberry cheesecake and red velvet by voting online and through social media.
The Creamery is currently soliciting suggestions for a name for the new flavor at http://creamery.psu.edu/150/anniversary-flavor.
Also debuting during the Arts Festival is a limited edition ice cream passport. The souvenir passport will allow patrons to keep track of all the flavors they’ve consumed. Visitors can add stamps to their passports for each of the 50 flavors listed in the booklet.
From July 10 to 12, the Creamery is seeking to set a record for the number of ice cream cones/cups served during the Arts Festival weekend. The previous high for cones and cups served was 15,179.
Established in 1865, the Creamery began as a barn on campus producing and selling dairy products such as fresh milk and cheese. Ice cream was added to the menu in 1920.
The Creamery moved to its present-day location on Curtin Road on Sept. 29, 2006.
Many celebrities have visited the Creamery over the years, including President Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart and most recently, Jeff Gordon.