The Sweetcream Taste

Jacqui DeFranca and Jon Denton have always loved ice cream. Now the pair own their own ice cream shop in Jon’s hometown of Biddeford, where locally sourced ingredients have always been the focus.The two met in New York City while working at the same restaurant. When they began dating, ice cream dates were a staple. Jacqui recalls how great these memories were and how this sparked the idea of making ice cream.

“Ice cream was such a focus of going out and having fun. But living in New York we noticed how expensive these ice cream dates became, and we wondered how it would be if we made it ourselves.”

This led to a fun hobby of creating ice cream in their apartment. After many batches of home-made ice cream, Jon and Jacqui wanted to see if they could take this hobby and turn it into a business.

Jon has a background in chemistry and has always had a special interest in food science and recipe development. He enrolled in the Penn State Ice Cream Short Course and began to learn how to make ice cream on a larger scale. While enrolled in the course, Jon met someone who offered him a job making gelato for the summer, which he accepted.

All of this led to the opening of their shop, Sweetcream Dairy in Biddeford in 2016. The focus of Sweetcream has always been locally sourced ingredients. They source their ingredients and flavorings directly from Maine farms and producers whenever possible.

They keep their ingredient list short with the idea that fewer components translate to a bright and more genuine taste. The idea behind their flavors is simple – they want to craft the most delicious versions of every flavor. Whether it’s a classic such as Jacqui’s favorite mint chip and Jon’s favorite strawberry, or a more out of the box idea such as the shop’s most popular flavor “What the Fluff”, they are always tweaking

and improving their recipes to get the best results. The two also have their own pasteurizer in the shop that allows them to pasteurize their own mix.

All the milk and cream used in Sweetcream Dairy comes directly from Harris Farm in Dayton – just ten minutes down the road from the shop. Growing up in Biddeford, Jon has many great memories of visiting Harris Farm as a kid –school field trips, cross-country skiing, sledding, and so many more.

Harris Farm is a 600-acre dairy farm that is open to the public every day. The farm store sells a variety of products including glass bottled milk, homemade butter, and yogurt made by Sweetcream Dairy using their milk.

Sweetcream is open year-round in Biddeford for customers to get their dairy goodness. They also sell pints of their flavors in different small stores around Maine.