Teton Valley Creamery keeps it real.
LEFT: Grace Lowe and Kris Malling will continue to run the show at the new Teton Valley Creamery in Driggs as the operation adds cheese to the menu. CITIZEN PHOTO / HOPE STRONGMany have marveled with mounting curiosity as the site of the old Driggs City Hall has been transformed over the past weeks. The iconic art deco building in downtown Driggs received a green racing stripe last week, punctuating an impressive remodel for a business that will capitalize on local flavors to develop dessert and cheeses worth waiting for.
Open the door to Teton Valley Creamery and find quickly that what’s happening inside the building is even more impressive than what has happened to the outside. A quick tour of the facility by Dairy Technologist Fons Smits reveals that the first of three huge walk-ins is used to store local milk from Steve Wright’s dairy, the sole source of the Creamery’s main ingredient.
The second walk-in is cold enough to make even a valley winter night blush. Kept at -25 degrees, the flash freezer is used to keep the Creamery’s primary product crystallized. Different than regular ice cream, Smits has worked with Creamery manager Kris Malling to develop gelato, Italian-style ice cream that is made exclusively with whole milk rather than cream, reducing butterfat content of the finished product from around 14 percent to just under 3 percent.
“This is just the first start,” Smits said with a hint of his native Netherlands. “We are still in the stage of testing flavors, but it all about getting the best ingredients together with the right equipment.”
Smits, who is married to a cousin of the Hoken family that owns the Creamery, runs his own show at Traders Point Creamery in Indiana. He has produced award-winning cheeses and received international acclaim in the industry, and that will translate into a sweet reward for local residents. Under the tutelage of Smits, Malling with keep Teton Valley in gelato and cheeses long after Smits returns east.
The small team of milk processors anxiously awaits cheese-making equipment from Europe, at which time the new operation will be fully transformed, producing not only gelato but also a variety of cheeses.
“We now have cheese curds or sweet cheese, but that is just the start of it,” Smits said. “Our cheeses will all be based on raw milk, with a variety of products aged from two or three months to longer-aged cheeses that will need eight months before they are ready.”
The third walk-in in the Creamery awaits a specific piece of equipment that will control the temperature, humidity and every other element important to aging cheese. Much more involved than just letting it sit, Malling will handle the cheeses throughout the aging process to ensure a consistent product of the highest quality.
While cheese is somewhat in the future for the new Creamery in Driggs, their frozen confections are creating quite a buzz in the community that has translated into a booming little business. Mallings’ girlfriend, Grace Lowe, has watched lines form out the door as people satisfy their curiosity and their sweet tooth as she waits for them to figure out that a pick-up window was installed on the south wall for quick access.
Sold out of huckleberry this week, Malling and Smits are working to establish a steady supplier of the elusive berry. One flavor down, the Creamery is flush with Deep, Dark Chocolate that hovers somewhere between pudding and brownies. Also on the board is Brown Sugar Vanilla, Strawberry, Dulce de Leche and Cappuccino Dream that is made with coffee from neighboring Pendl’s Bakery.
“It is the local part that is taking over the food sector,” Smits said. “We are finding out what kind of stuff we can get locally here in the valley to incorporate into our products. Local honey, red raspberries and cherries are on the list, but it’s impossible to think of everything yourself. We are open to suggestions.”
As a small operation, Teton Valley Creamery is open to creating small batches custom flavors for specific events or creating flavors people may want with ingredients they provide. Teton Thai, for example, will provide the green tea used in a gelato of the same name featured at the popular restaurant in Driggs.
“We are looking forward to thinking outside the box,” Smits said. “We want to be creative with seasonal flavors. Maybe we will do a batch using pumpkin in October.”
Whatever comes out of Teton Valley Creamery is sure to be the icing on the cake for a block in Driggs that keeps growing with businesses fine-tuned to specific tastes.
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