116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Manchester empty-nesters churn hobby into Mima’s Old Fashion Ice Cream
Couple can be found serving up ice cream at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids and some area farmers markets
According to the International Dairy Foods Association, Americans eat an average of 20 pounds — or four gallons — of ice cream each year.
Joe and Elizabeth Mullens of Manchester are confident that some of that consumption in the Corridor will be Mima's Old Fashion Ice Cream, a home-based venture the two empty-nesters started last year.
It was after a meal at an ice cream parlor in 2023 where Joe got the idea. “I walked out and says to myself, ‘I can do this better.’ ”
If you go
WHAT: Mima’s Old Fashion Ice Cream
CEDAR RAPIDS: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sundays at NewBo City Market, 1100 Third St. SE
CEDAR RAPIDS: 7:30 a.m. to noon Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market, Booth 115 in front of Cobble Hill (219 Second St. SE)
DELHI: Off the Hoof, 314 Franklin St.
MANCHESTER: Bushel & A Peck, 401 W. Main St.
MANCHESTER: Real Deals, 935 E. Main St.
COST: $8 pint; $5 sorbet/Italian ice/scoops/ice cream sandwiches
CONTACT: (563) 663-2625; mimasofic@gmail.com
DETAILS: Mima’s Old Fashion Ice Cream on Facebook; TikTok @mimasoldfashionicecream
He started researching ice cream making online. Then, he bought an ice cream maker online for $300 and got to work making 1.5 gallons at a time. The first recipe he tried was Wild Cherry Snickers.
“It was just something I had watched on YouTube. We like flavors that are different than traditional ice cream,” Joe said.
He’d churn, add ingredients, and then ask his family and friends what they thought. If the flavor didn’t rate high, Joe would go back to the kitchen and tweak the recipe — sometimes over and over.
While Elizabeth is Mima’s “chief taster,” Joe said, other family taste testers include son Logan, 26, grandkids Huxley, Klaire, Jaimie and Lincoln and daughter Allison, 20. “She’s really the dessert eater in the house,” Joe said.
Reviewers consistently raved about the rich and creamy texture of the ice cream.
But Joe wasn’t satisfied just learning how to make ice cream. He taught himself to bake to learn the science of food. The chocolate cookies he uses for the ice cream sandwiches are from his 22nd recipe: soft enough when frozen but firm enough to stay together as the ice cream softens. And lots of chocolate chips.
All of that research has made Joe a walking encyclopedia of ice cream knowledge. He can tell you the difference between ice cream and ice milk, and what makes premium ice creamier than regular ice cream. The federal standard is that the dessert must have at least 10 percent butterfat and no more than 50 percent air. Less than that, it’s a frozen dairy dessert.
“It looks just like ice cream,” Joe said. “You don’t know it’s not ice cream unless you actually read the label.”
He knows what temperature ice cream scoops best at — between 6 and 10 degrees.
He can even tell you who invented the first mechanical ice cream maker and why — 20-something Emery Thompson patented the first mechanical batch freezer, the industry name for an ice cream maker, in 1903. He was working at a Manhattan, N.Y., department store, where his job was to make ice cream using the hand-cranked ice and rock salt method. Exhausted by the work, Thompson created the machine. The company still manufactures and sells batch freezers, including the one the Mullens use.
“I could talk about it all day long — and I eat less ice cream than anybody,” Joe said.
It didn’t take long before Joe was switching out his $300 machine for a commercial ice cream machine, which was quite the investment.
“You can buy a car, or you can buy a commercial ice cream machine,” he said. It allows him to make about 6 gallons an hour.
As the Mullens go all-in this venture, their home is now a licensed home food processing establishment inspected by the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals. The dining room is no longer functional, because it’s home to freezers.
“The living room has a freezer. My garage has a freezer. There are freezers everywhere,” Joe said.
Where to find Mima’s
On Sundays, you can taste the creamy concoctions by visiting NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids. They also will be at Saturday’s Cedar Rapids Downtown Farmers Market. They can be found other Saturdays at the Iowa City Farmers Market or Marion Uptown Farmers Market, and at TrekFest in Riverside from June 27 to 29. Their ice cream also is sold at several retail stores in Delaware County.
Following Mima’s on Facebook lets you see where the Mullens are scooping ice cream and which flavors they’ll have chilling behind their custom red wagon.
Ice cream flavors
Each batch of Mima’s starts with a higher-fat vanilla or chocolate ice cream base purchased from Des Moines-based Anderson Erickson Dairy. Then Joe adds flavoring, fruit, cookie pieces — whatever the recipe calls for.
Joe said he only uses natural products. Frozen fruit is used because the quality and flavors are more consistent than fresh. They use only cane sugar rather than sugar made from beets.
Mima’s list of flavors is long and changes, but here are several you might find:
- Blue Moon: The blue is the color, not the flavor. “It tastes like cereal milk ... after you eat a bowl of Fruity Pebbles or Froot Loops,” Joe said.
- Banana Split: Whole bananas go right into the ice cream machine. Then strawberries. Finally, the mixture is swirled with chocolate.
- Chocolate chip: The secret is shaved chocolate rather than chocolate chips.
- Peanut Butter Fudge
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Red Raspberry: White chocolate ice cream with raspberry swirl
- Ice cream sandwiches: Selection varies, but you’ll likely find Queen’s Delight, 3-inch Oreo cookies sandwiching layers of vanilla and chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream sandwiched between Joe’s homemade chocolate cookies. “I’ve probably changed my chocolate chip cookie recipe 25 times,” Joe said.
- Coffee and Cookies ice cream is evidence that Joe makes flavors for his customers, not himself: He’s never acquired a taste for coffee. When it comes to coffee, everybody has an opinion, Joe said, but adding Oreo chunks to the coffee is for those who love to dunk cookies into their cup of Joe.
Joe’s favorite ice cream flavor is chocolate. He “can’t stand” mint ice cream, but because the mint chip is so popular, he’s created Mint Oreo in both dairy and non-dairy versions. The minty and creamy ice cream is chock full of Oreo chunks, not crumbs. Joe adjusts the flavoring and coloring to accommodate non-dairy differences.
“It’s very hard to distinguish between the two,” he said.
Joe’s brain is constantly churning with ideas for new flavors. Walking through a grocery store, he considers foods as possible ice cream ingredients. He dreams of an ice cream trailer that will make it easier to set up at farmers markets regardless of the weather, and allow them to staff more extended events such as county fairs.
“It’s just fun,” he said. “That’s the one thing that the people who buy their ice cream don’t experience. It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun to come up with ideas.”
From trucking to ice cream
For now the ice cream venture is a side business and they have no plans on making it a full-time job. The couple, who have been together almost 30 years, had their kids young and built a trucking company together.
“We have a dozen semis,” Joe said of Mullen Transportation.
Joe often gets credit for Mullen Transportation because he has a commercial driver’s license and still drives a truck. But he says it’s all Elizabeth running the trucking company.
“She takes care of everything day to day,” he said.
That’s why he named the ice cream venture after her: Mima is what their grandkids call Elizabeth.
“What I’m really proud of and what I really like, is people really like my wife’s ice cream. I feel like it’s time she gets the recognition she deserves,” he said.
Elizabeth said ice cream making is very different from trucking. Still, her husband has determination and a knack for growing a business.
“And he’s willing to put in the work,” she said.
What did Elizabeth think when her husband said he would make ice cream?
“I wasn’t surprised. I’m like, ‘Go ahead, do it.’ ”
It’s a nice hobby, and it would make him happy, she thought.
“I didn’t realize it would turn into this,” she said while scooping ice cream at NewBo City Market on May 19. “It’s turned into something bigger than I thought.”
Daily Newsletters