In the ice business, mid-May typically marks the beginning of the busy season. This year, the season opened with a bang. The Mother’s Day holiday and school graduation ceremonies coincided with ideal picnic weather during the May 13-14 weekend. It seemed like almost everyone needed ice. The following Tuesday, the biggest freezer at Hilke’s Ice in Freeburg was still half

Consider the challenge of moving a trailer full of ice cream through the Mojave Desert. Temperatures can top 110 degrees on these desert highways. Ice cream, on the other hand, must be kept at negative 20 degrees to stay fresh. This might sound like a ridiculous scenario, but it’s actually a real job handled by Springfield-based Prime Inc., which operates

On any given St. Louis summer evening, customers line up outside one of Ted Drewes’ stands for an iconic yellow cup filled with frozen custard. Churning out cool treats for nearly 90 years, Ted Drewes Frozen Custard is a beloved St. Louis establishment. Little has changed in the way the business is run since Ted Drewes Sr. opened the first

Eleven years ago, the research and development team at True Manufacturing had an idea that could lead to both a better refrigerator and a cooler planet. Based in O’Fallon, True is the nation’s largest manufacturer of commercial refrigerators. The privately owned company has more than 4 million square feet of production space in Missouri and ships to more than 100

Steve Strong is quick to point out the benefits of distilling in a cave. For instance, the cool, consistent cave environment is perfect for fermentation — a process that can be spoiled by temperature swings. And unlike most distillers, Strong doesn’t have to rotate his barrels of rye whiskey and bourbon. The cave naturally keeps them all the same temperature.