Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is an ice cream company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Jeni's has over 80 ice cream shops and retail distributors in the United States.[1]
History
Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams was founded by Jeni Britton-Bauer, who is the current chief creative officer.
Before starting Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams, Britton-Bauer attended The Ohio State University and studied art history and fine art. While in college, she was given vials of scented chemicals by a chemistry graduate colleague, which led her to gather essential oils, make her own perfume, and sell her perfumes for a few years.
Bauer experimented with the essential oil of cayenne pepper and combined it with chocolate ice cream to make spicy frozen chocolate. She determined that ice cream was "the perfect carrier of scent," and thus began making other flavors of ice cream with essential oils. Two weeks later, she decided that she wanted to make scented ice cream as a business and dropped out of Ohio State.[2]
Bauer first sold her ice cream at a farmer's market