Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams Releases Appalachian Acorn Pie Flavor Made With Ohio Acorns
The Columbus-based creamery partnered with an eastern Ohio agricultural cooperative and an Amish mill after international sourcing fell through.
Columbus-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams released a new limited-edition fall flavor, Appalachian Acorn Pie, on Oct. 1, 2026, concluding a five-year effort to develop an ice cream centered on foraged Ohio oak acorns release-debut. The company announced that the seasonal flavor is available while supplies last in its scoop shops nationwide and online through its website release-availability.
According to the company's Oct. 1 announcement, the project began roughly five years ago when its research and development team started exploring whether acorns could serve as an ice cream base release-start. Initial attempts to secure acorn flour from international suppliers fell through, prompting Jeni's to build an entirely new regional supply chain to gather and process wild acorns in eastern Ohio release-supply. Beth Stallings, senior director of innovation at Jeni's, said in the announcement that early samples showed acorn flour was fragrant and nutty, convincing the team to pursue the flavor despite a lack of commercial distribution channels for acorns release-quote.
To establish local sourcing, Jeni's partnered with the Route 9 Action Network, an agricultural cooperative based in Carroll County, Ohio, whose primary harvest had previously centered on chestnuts release-partner. Jeni's signed multiple grant support letters to assist the cooperative in expanding operations to forage oak acorns and wash and leach out bitter tannins to make them edible release-process. Once processed, the acorns were transported to a nearby Amish farm to be milled into flour, requiring communication through postal mail, a community phone and personal visits release-amish.
The finished ice cream pairs the acorn flour base with a graham cracker pie crust swirl, which the company described as nutty and sweet with notes reminiscent of hazelnut, coconut and chestnut release-flavor. Founded in Columbus in 2002 by Jeni Britton, the company now operates more than 90 scoop shops across the country release-company. The company's Oct. 1 announcement did not state the retail price per pint or the total volume of acorn flour harvested for the seasonal batch.
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Columbus-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams released a new limited-edition fall flavor, Appalachian Acorn Pie, on Oct. 1, 2026, concluding a five-year effort to develop an ice cream centered on foraged Ohio oak acorns release-debut. The company announced that the seasonal flavor is available while supplies last in its scoop shops nationwide and online through its website release-availability.
According to the company's Oct. 1 announcement, the project began roughly five years ago when its research and development team started exploring whether acorns could serve as an ice cream base release-start. Initial attempts to secure acorn flour from international suppliers fell through, prompting Jeni's to build an entirely new regional supply chain to gather and process wild acorns in eastern Ohio release-supply. Beth Stallings, senior director of innovation at Jeni's, said in the announcement that early samples showed acorn flour was fragrant and nutty, convincing the team to pursue the flavor despite a lack of commercial distribution channels for acorns release-quote.
To establish local sourcing, Jeni's partnered with the Route 9 Action Network, an agricultural cooperative based in Carroll County, Ohio, whose primary harvest had previously centered on chestnuts release-partner. Jeni's signed multiple grant support letters to assist the cooperative in expanding operations to forage oak acorns and wash and leach out bitter tannins to make them edible release-process. Once processed, the acorns were transported to a nearby Amish farm to be milled into flour, requiring communication through postal mail, a community phone and personal visits release-amish.
The finished ice cream pairs the acorn flour base with a graham cracker pie crust swirl, which the company described as nutty and sweet with notes reminiscent of hazelnut, coconut and chestnut release-flavor. Founded in Columbus in 2002 by Jeni Britton, the company now operates more than 90 scoop shops across the country release-company. The company's Oct. 1 announcement did not state the retail price per pint or the total volume of acorn flour harvested for the seasonal batch.
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FROM FOREST TO FREEZER: JENI'S DEBUTS APPALACHIAN ACORN PIE AFTER FIVE YEARS OF INNOVATION
Supporting evidence (10)
Columbus-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams released a new limited-edition fall flavor, Appalachian Acorn Pie, on Oct. 1, 2026, concluding a five-year effort to develop an ice cream centered on foraged Ohio oak acorns release-debut.
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Today, Jeni's Ice Creams releases Appalachian Acorn Pie, a new limited-edition fall flavor, half a decade in the making, crafted with flour milled from foraged Ohio oak acorns, available online and in Jeni's scoop shops.
The company announced that the seasonal flavor is available while supplies last in its scoop shops nationwide and online through its website release-availability.
Read supporting passage
The limited-time flavor launches October 1 at Jenis.com and in Jeni's scoop shops nationwide, while supplies last.
According to the company's Oct. 1 announcement, the project began roughly five years ago when its research and development team started exploring whether acorns could serve as an ice cream base release-start.
Read supporting passage
About five years ago, the Jeni's R&D team asked what felt like an innocuous question: "Would it be possible to make an ice cream with acorns?"
Initial attempts to secure acorn flour from international suppliers fell through, prompting Jeni's to build an entirely new regional supply chain to gather and process wild acorns in eastern Ohio release-supply.
Read supporting passage
After those international sources fell through, the team realized if they were going to make an acorn ice cream, they would need to build their own supply chain from the ground up — the first time the team would have to do this.
Beth Stallings, senior director of innovation at Jeni's, said in the announcement that early samples showed acorn flour was fragrant and nutty, convincing the team to pursue the flavor despite a lack of commercial distribution channels for acorns release-quote.
Read supporting passage
"The problem was, those early international sources for acorn flour gave us a first taste of what this ice cream could be, which was so fragrant and nutty and beautiful. It was unlike anything I'd ever eaten, but also felt wildly familiar," recalls Beth Stallings, Senior Director of Innovation at Jeni's.
To establish local sourcing, Jeni's partnered with the Route 9 Action Network, an agricultural cooperative based in Carroll County, Ohio, whose primary harvest had previously centered on chestnuts release-partner.
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Jeni's partnered with Route 9 Action Network, an agricultural cooperative based in Carroll County, Ohio. Their main crop is chestnuts, but they were interested in expanding.
Jeni's signed multiple grant support letters to assist the cooperative in expanding operations to forage oak acorns and wash and leach out bitter tannins to make them edible release-process.
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So, Jeni's signed multiple grant letters to help Route 9 grow their business so that they could forage and process the acorns needed for this ice cream. This included washing and leaching the tannins from the acorns so they would be safe to consume.
Once processed, the acorns were transported to a nearby Amish farm to be milled into flour, requiring communication through postal mail, a community phone and personal visits release-amish.
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From there, the acorns went to a nearby Amish farm to be milled into flour. This required a few extra layers of communication — Jeni's had to use snail mail, a community phone, and in-person visits to stay in contact.
The finished ice cream pairs the acorn flour base with a graham cracker pie crust swirl, which the company described as nutty and sweet with notes reminiscent of hazelnut, coconut and chestnut release-flavor.
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After five years of foraging, milling, and testing, Jeni's is releasing a very limited supply of Appalachian Acorn Pie, an acorn ice cream with a graham cracker swirl. It's nutty and sweet — somewhere in the realm of hazelnut, coconut, and chestnut.
Founded in Columbus in 2002 by Jeni Britton, the company now operates more than 90 scoop shops across the country release-company.
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Founded in 2002 by James Beard Award-winning ice cream maker Jeni Britton, Jeni's has emerged over the past 20 years as the new standard by which all other ice creams are judged.