More chocolate milk, please: BYU to build a bigger, better Creamery on Ninth

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Brigham Young University is going to tear down its historic CONE.

That’s official BYU code for the Creamery on Ninth East, the 75-year-old campus landmark ice cream shop, grill and grocery store on the eastern edge of the university.

The Creamery opened in 1949 to provide milk for the campus and then other dairy products produced by the university. Most famously today, it is the flagship store of the BYU Creamery brand, which famously includes the chocolate milk that is part of stone-cold sober BYU’s national image.

Student employees manning the Creamery’s ice cream counter also sell tens of thousands of scoops of ice cream each year to the 1.3 million customers who visit the Creamery annually, including In-Shane-ly Chocolate, the ice cream named for BYU President Shane Reese.

Don’t worry, BYU will get a brand-new CONE. In fact, the Creamery will remain open while its bigger, better replacement is being built on the west side of its current parking lot next to the Heritage Halls Central Building.

A groundbreaking ceremony took place Friday and construction will begin this month. The new building will open in a year, in mid-2025, according to a BYU news release.

The new store will feature a 70% increase in retail space, including critical updates so the store can meet the evolving needs of the campus community.

That should mean the store can sell more Creamery ice cream, including the traditional flavor inspired by the school president.

One of the favorite Creamery flavors is Earnestly Chocolate — chocolate ice cream, caramel swirl, marshmallow swirl and chocolate covered caramel cups — created in 1999 to celebrate the rededication of the Ernest L. Wilkinson Student Center, named for the man who presided over the school from 1951-71.

The most recent presidential flavors are:

• “Woosh, Cecil,” named for President Cecil Samuelson and consisting of chocolate ice cream laced with salted caramel and cashews.
• “Worthen’s PB&C,” a peanut butter ice cream with peanut brittle and chocolate swirl named for President Kevin Worthen.
• “In-Shane-ly Chocolate,” which debuted in September 2023 and is made up of Dutch chocolate ice cream with marshmallow swirls and brownie pieces.

The fact that chocolate would be the base of Reese’s namesake ice cream is no surprise. At BYU’s annual University Conference last year — Reese’s first as president — a member of his cabinet told faculty and staff that whatever flavor the Creamery chose, it would have a lot of chocolate .

The campus appears grateful. Last month, In-Shane-ly Chocolate was voted the Creamery’s No. 1 chocolate ice cream .

Mint flavors are also popular. “Blue Goggles,” one of at least four ice creams that include mint, consists of blue mint ice cream, chocolate covered honeycomb and cookie dough pieces.

So, if you’re in Provo this summer or dropping off a child there in the fall, swing by the old Creamery at 1209 N. 900 East, try the new flavors and hang out at the old haunt a final time.

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