Why can’t you mix ice cream flavors at Penn State’s Berkey Creamery? We asked the experts

In our Uniquely stories, CDT journalists celebrate what we love most about Centre County, its history & culture. Read more. Story idea? cdtnewstips@centredaily.com.

Just about every Penn State alum and Centre County resident knows the main rule at the university’s Berkey Creamery — no mixing ice cream flavors! — but do you why it’s a rule?

And did you know the main reason it’s a rule today is almost certainly different from the original reason?

We spoke to several experts and took a deep dive in the archives for some insight into one of University Park’s iconic locations:

Why no mixing today

Jim Brown, assistant manager at Berkey Creamery, has worked in the position for nearly 20 years — so he didn’t hesitate when asked about the main reason customers aren’t allowed to mix flavors today.

“The main reason is to avoid any cross contamination,” Brown said, alluding to concern over food allergies. “There’s a lot of different food allergens out there — like soy, dairy, wheat (gluten), tree nuts — and we want to make sure all flavors are kept individually.

“Now, if you have no allergies, it doesn’t matter, right? If you had a gluten-ingredient ice cream get contaminated by vanilla, you wouldn’t think twice. But there are people out there that are highly allergic and, because we have as many as 20-24 flavors being dipped in three cabinets at any given time, we want to make sure our students — which are part-time employees — don’t accidentally mix a scoop in one with a scoop in another.”

As the years have progressed, and food allergies have come more prevalent, the Creamery has only gotten more serious about preventing cross contamination. Ice cream flavors on the digital menu board now indicate what allergens they contain. More products — such as sorbets — offer additional options for the lactose intolerant. And, for those who are especially sensitive, the Creamery keeps a small freezer behind the register that holds half-gallons designed for the highly allergic.

Before the pandemic, in either 2019 or 2020, Berkey Creamery even decided to permanently halt the sale of sprinkles — due to the presence of an allergen (soy). The Creamery does bring back blue-and-white sprinkles for certain events, such as Arts Fest, because it hosts an outdoor stand where cross-contamination isn’t as much of an issue.

Today, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 13 children are estimated to have food allergies. That’s increased significantly since the 1980s and 1990s, when food allergies first became a public concern, with the CDC reporting that the prevalence of food allergies in children increased 50% between 1997 and 2011.

Of course, if food allergies weren’t as big of a concern in the past, that begs the question of why flavors weren’t allowed to be mixed beforehand. Brown believed the Creamery never allowed for the mixing of flavors, and the Centre Daily Times couldn’t find any information to the contrary in its archives since 1941.

Why no mixing before

The primary reason for yesteryear appears to be the secondary reason today.

Mixing flavors simply takes too long.

“... My memory is that the no-mix policy was simple logistics,” said Lee Stout, author of the Creamery-inspired book “Ice Cream U,” which published in 2009. “Lines were often so long that having staff trying to jump around to put two flavors together just tied things up too much behind the counter, so the one flavor only was the way to keep things moving.”

Before the Creamery moved to its current location in 2006, it spent nearly 75 years in the much smaller Borland Laboratory — which, at 1,700 square feet, was less than half the size of the current shop. Customers ate their ice cream outside, and lines routinely snaked out of the building.

Even in the 1960s, the Centre Daily Times routinely published articles on the Creamery’s popularity. A 1965 article swore that some people drove more than 100 miles on a Sunday “for a lark and a lick” of the university’s ice cream. “Probably no visit to Penn State’s vast campus is ever complete without a stop at University creamery,” the article stated. Another 1960s article recounted the story of a married woman who purchased four half-gallons of bittersweet mint — and four quarts of other ice cream — to carry on her plane ride back home to Santa Maria, California.

Brown, the assistant manager, said he couldn’t speak with certainty about the Creamery before his 2005 arrival. But, given the fact speed is the No. 2 reason for the no-mixing rule these days, Brown said it made sense if that used to be the primary reason.

“You had to find every way possible at that (previous) location to get people through the lines and not standing there trying to choose their flavors and everything,” Brown added. “So I can understand if that was their focus back then.”

Story behind the exception (Bill Clinton)

There isn’t much confusion anymore about the Creamery’s widely-known no-mixing rule. Brown said employees only need to remind a present-day customer of the rule “a few times a year.”

But, in 1996, at least one person could’ve used a Creamery history lesson — then-sitting U.S. President Bill Clinton.

Clinton is known as the only person to ever mix flavors at the Creamery. According to newspaper accounts at the time, he ordered a cone of Peachy Paterno before asking for it to be topped with a scoop of Cherry Quist.

Chuck Gill, now a public relations specialist for the College of Agricultural Sciences, recalled Clinton’s visit on May 10, 1996. The worker behind the counter initially told the president mixing flavors wasn’t allowed until, Gill remembered, the Creamery manager at the time stepped in and said they’d make an exception.

“If I’d have known it was against the rules I wouldn’t have done it,” Clinton said at the time, per newspaper reports.

Clinton then carried his cone outside, where he ate it alongside then-Penn State President Graham Spanier, who munched on a cone of WPSU Coffee Break. Spanier said Clinton told him, “This is good. I’m going to eat the whole thing, and this is dinner.”

When Clinton visited the Creamery again, four years later, he didn’t ask for a second flavor. He had learned his lesson.

No mixing flavors at the Creamery.