Photo Credit: Frönen
Jessica Gartenstein and Erik Nadeau started Frönen while they were in college because Jessy has Celiac Disease and dairy sensitivity. In looking for a cleaner, better-for-you treat, they found that most of the ice creams that were available had a laundry list of ingredients that were both difficult to digest and difficult to pronounce. Their mission was to be a gut-friendly ice cream with just a handful of ingredients and no stabilizers, and by offering products that were dairy-free and easily digestible, their customers could feel better about consuming.
A part of Frönen’s clean-label formula includes using honey as a sweetener, and we spoke to them about that choice, along with their year-long commitment to the Honey Saves Hives program.
National Honey Board (NHB): What was the thought process behind using honey in the products?
Erik: We decided to use honey for numerous reasons. We were looking for something really natural and something that a customer would be really comfortable with consuming. Honey seemed to be a great option because it’s obviously very natural; it tastes great and there’s a wide variety of flavors — whether we want it to taste a specific way or have a minimal taste — honey has a lot of versatility. And also the chemical makeup too; being a little bit of a natural anti-freeze helps with the texture of our products as well.
NHB: How does honey marry so well with your Strawberry, Madagascar Vanilla, Chocolate and Mint Chip varieties?
Erik: Sometimes it’s hard formulating ice cream, especially with subtle flavors like vanilla or fruits, but the honey that we use in those flavors in and of itself is not too overpowering. You can taste just a little bit but it doesn’t overwhelm what we’re trying to do with the Vanilla or Strawberry. And then with the Chocolate Chip, we use a honey that’s a little bit more rich and prevents the chocolate from being too bitter.
NHB: You're one of our Honey Saves Hives partners this year! Tell us about that decision and are there any other initiatives you're doing to help the bees or pollinator awareness?
Jessy: We’re really excited to be a part of Honey Saves Hives this year. You guys do such an amazing job of spreading awareness. We’re able to post about Project Apis m. on our website and it drove a lot of traffic. Some of our customers were able to donate. A lot of our customers actually follow diets where honey is the only sweetener that they can consume, so having them better understand about honey bees is really important. It’s really cool for us to actually share this with our customers who are a very engaged demographic who are looking for honey-sweetened specifically.
For more information on Frönen and all of our Honey Saves Hives partners, visit https://honeysaveshives.com/partners/brand-partners/.