Graeter's French Pot® Process

Once common, and now unique, the French Pot batch process is now truly only practiced commercially by Graeter's. This old-world process consists of a spinning metal pot, surrounded by a freezing element.

Each of our French Pot freezers yield 2 ½ gallon batches, the industry's smallest. This small batch size enables our high-butterfat ice cream mix to freeze slowly, with virtually no added air. This yields an ultra creamy, dense, and smooth ice cream like none other.

Our legendary chocolate "chips" are formed by pouring melted gourmet chocolate straight into the pot at just the right moment, instantly hardening into a shell of chocolate. These are broken into our unique chocolate chunks, no two are the same.

Since our ice cream is frozen, and not just a slurry like our competitors, we're left with little choice but to hand pack it into every pint.

Little about this core production method has changed in over 155 years besides modernizing food safety and the surrounding facility. We stubbornly believe that this is at the heart of what makes our ice cream so incredible. For those who know, taste the Graetest!