PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Despite not having a central storefront, Amy Wilson’s ice cream has been growing in popularity across Philadelphia.
Wilson has been making ice cream for a decade, but she officially launched Milk Jawn this past year. She opened her business just before the coronavirus pandemic, admitting she and partners Ryan Miller and Cathryn Sanderson really had no idea how to begin.
“None of us are business owners, so it was just a year of just jumping in and problem-solving,” she said.
They make the ice cream in a commercial kitchen, and Wilson said not having a storefront is actually a big benefit.
“We didn’t have a lot of overhead,” she explained. “We started out with pop-ups and pop-ups became sort of like an event during the pandemic. People were excited to have a reason to go out.”
Then, they began delivering pints.
“We would show up at people’s doors and they would jump up and down and they would be screaming like it was their birthday. They would be so excited to see us,” she said.
Some of Milk Jawn’s most popular flavors include classic milk and cookies, lemon curd with a blueberry basil swirl, and, surprisingly, Earl Grey with honeycomb.
Wilson said they are working on opening a brick-and-mortar Milk Jawn store this fall in South Philadelphia. In the meantime, customers can order online, pick up a pint at Stone’s Beverage on Fairmount Avenue, or follow their Instagram for pop-up events.
“We spend a lot of time testing recipes,” Wilson added. “Flavor is sort of what drives us.”
For more on Milk Jawn, listen to the KYW Newsradio original podcast What’s Cooking on the Audacy app.