Breyer's

And the man behind the brand is...
William Breyer

Ice cream was known in colonial times; Dolly Madison introduced it to the White House in the early 1800s. But it was troublesome to make and rarely seen on American tables in that time. The first improvement in the manufacture of ice cream was Nancy Johnson’s hand-cranked freezer in 1846.

After the Civil War in 1866 William Breyer took a hand-cranked freezer and made his first ice cream. Breyer used rich cream, cane sugar, fruits and nuts to make his frozen treats. He loaded his wagon and hawked his ice cream to his neighbors on the streets of North Philadelphia. Breyer called his customers out of their homes with a dinner bell. That first year he sold 1,000 gallons of homemade ice cream.

Philadelphia was America’s ice cream capital. Philadelphians enjoyed more ice cream than anyone in its famous public ice cream houses. A frozen concoction of vanilla-and-egg earned the moniker “Philadelphia” and was wildly popular. Amidst such competition William Breyer could afford to make his ice cream from only the freshest natural ingredients.

In 1882 Breyer had sold enough ice cream to move his trade off the Philadelphia cobblestones and into his own retail ice cream store. A manufacturing area was in the back of the shop and a soda fountain out front. It was his last contribution to the firm; he died later that year.

William Breyer was able to survive in the carnivorous ice cream business only by using the purest, highest quality ingredients obtainable. Aware of the legacy entrusted in him when Henry Breyer took over the business in 1882 he wrote a “pledge of purity” that continues to adorn every Breyers ice cream carton today. Breyers, which is America’s largest selling ice cream, still blends it ice cream with the same basic formula William Breyer used in his kitchen in 1866.