A Brief History of Purity Ice Cream Company, Inc.

Purity Ice Cream, the Pride of the Finger Lakes, was first produced in 1936 when Leo Guentert opened his shop on Ithaca's First Street. Leo and his wife Sylvia made and sold ice cream crafted with basic, natural ingredients, as was the style in the 30's when commercial ice cream-making in the U.S. was just getting under way.

Leo, a native of Germany, graduated from Cornell University, then worked for Nestle´ and the now defunct Ithaca Ice Cream Company, prior to setting out on his own business adventure. He loved chocolate ice cream and thought he could make it better than what he found on the market. Not only did he succeed with chocolate, but also his vanilla and his bittersweet flavors soon became local legends.

His grand daughter, Margo McLaughlin Klose, took over the reigns upon Leo's death at the age of 96. Over the years Purity grew to serve Central New York scoop shops and grocery stores from Norwich in the east, to Binghamton in the south, to the fringes of Syracuse and Rochester to the north. This area, as it turns out, is the region of New York State known as the Finger Lakes. With beautiful hills and lakes, the area has always been strong dairy country and Purity has always been a user of locally produced milk. To this day, our dairy farmer delivers milk fresh three times a week.

The time it takes to get our ice cream made and to the consumer is unmatched by national brands coming from many states away! But those national brands have something that Purity lacks: Lots of marketing muscle, which translates into big advertising and promotion budgets and prime shelf space in the chain grocery stores. It has been very hard to compete in a rapidly consolidating industry. Over the years, Purity saw its market shrink, as national brands became the thing to eat.

In 1998, Bruce and Heather Lane bought Purity with an eye towards revitalizing this Finger Lakes icon. Taking a page from the beer industry, which saw great consolidation into a few national brands, followed by a boom in consumer interest in local, high quality "boutique" products, Purity is now working to re-establish its standing in the hearts and stomachs of Central New Yorkers as the "Ice Cream of the Finger Lakes".

Given the wonderful time warp in which we at Purity live, we have the strategic advantage of still using the original recipes...we truly are making ice cream the way it used to be made. In small batches. With local, high quality natural ingredients. And our strategy is working! More and more people are discovering (or re-discovering!) Purity Ice Cream and our market is once again growing. We have a long way to go before we can proclaim ourselves solid competitors with the big guys, but for those who have tasted our Vanilla, or our Mint Chocolate Chip, or our incredibly special Mocha Chip, Purity is already established as an ice cream of unmatched quality and taste.

Ithaca is also the home of the American Ice Cream sundae, click here to learn the legend!!!