The History of Fosselman's Ice Cream Company

Shortly after the turn of the century, Christian Anthony Fosselman, a young man in the soft drink business, had his first taste of ice cream at a "Bottler's Convention" in Toronto, Canada. Being very impressed with this delicacy, he decided to incorporate it into his business. Strength and courage were needed since these were the ice and salt days of refrigeration. Christian was soon to become one of the American pioneers in the field of ice cream.

Old time Fosselman's Ice Cream delivery trucks

Located on the Cedar River in Waverly, Iowa, the frozen river during the winter months would provide all the ice needed for refrigeration. A tremendous effort was put forth each summer to store ice in sawdust sheds so that ice cream could be made during the hot spell. If these methods had to be used today, very little ice cream would be available and the cost would be very high. With the advent of commercial refrigeration, Christian decided to move his family and business to sunny California.

Old time photo of Fosselman's employees and truck drivers

In 1924, Christian located in Pasadena and began serving the Glendale and Pasadena areas with his famous ice cream and dairy products. After selling the wholesale creamery, Christian decided to try his hand at the retail business so back into the ice cream manufacturing he went, specializing in the famous, "Fosselman's Ice Cream."

Today, over 85 years later, the family business is still going strong. This we feel is a real tribute to Christian's credo of making the finest ice cream possible and passing this legacy down to his family. It would be impossible to stay in the ice cream business all these years with gimmicks and high pressure advertising without a high quality product. This fact is proven each year with the continuous winning of Gold Medals at the Los Angeles County Fair for their famous ice cream. Only years of experience along with the dedication of using the finest ingredients available to make the most delicious ice cream is what the name, "Fosselman's" stands for!

Today, Fosselman's Ice Cream is owned and operated by Christian's grandsons, Chris and John Fosselman. Chris and John still make all the ice cream themselves using the same family recipe.