MilkMade, Brooklyn, N.Y., takes the personal touch to a new level. The company delivers its pints right to its customers’ doors each month. MilkMade runs an ice cream of the month membership program. It processes ice cream a few gallons at a time and then hand-packs and personally labels every pint for its members. The MilkMade team (called milkmaids) loads the pints onto their bike baskets and literally hand-delivers the ice cream to its members’ homes or offices.
Founder Diana Hardeman began the business in her East Village apartment kitchen, armed with only a small ice cream machine. She fell into the business kind of by accident, motivated by a desire to create a “better pint.” Her focus was on creating flavors using fresh and local ingredients. Those “ice cream experiments” soon drew a cult following via social media and word-of-mouth, according to the company website. The ice cream of the month subscription service officially launched in the winter of 2009, and since then has served thousands of local members in New York City.