When I was a kid, my favorite video on Sesame Street was factory footage of crayons being made. Up to that point crayons were just things that I had, they were just there, and if there came a time where I needed more, we got them from the store. Everything was just AT the store. The STORE was the genesis of all my “stuff”, just the magical place that had limitless supply of things I liked. Now one morning I was watching the melting, forming, wrapping, and loading of these familiar objects, and it just blew my mind. It sent me on a spiral of wanting to know how EVERYTHING was made, from my Transformers, to my favorite snacks.

 

Now you can sign on to one of many TV streaming services to watch hour long documentaries about how and why things are made. If you want to see the origin story of the infamous Sriracha Hot Sauce, you can. I don’t think I should disclose how many of these I have seen, but just picture a lot of time, and then double that. I’ll save you from a tangent of the marvels of technology…The story of the passion that goes into creating a product, and the steps it takes to get there is fascinating to me. So if the opportunity arises to check out any of our local businesses in Champaign, I take them up on it. To this day I still love to check out how a t-shirt is screen printed, or take some extra time to see a full service brewery in action. My son was invited to the kitchen at a downtown restaurant to meet the chef, and see a couple steps in his meal preparation. It was something he talked about for a solid week afterwards.

 

We’d like to offer that kind of “behind the curtain” opportunity to children in the area at Jarling’s Custard Cup. We make all of our flavors fresh daily, so there is always something happening, even before we open. You can now schedule a morning tour to see a backstage view of that production. We’ll show them how we load the machines and turn a liquid into a solid. They can check out our many coolers filled with packaged flavors from all of our weekly specials. Our warehouse is full of treats from the cookies we make into sandwiches, to all the various candy and sundae toppings. They might even want to try on a hat and apron for a fun picture, and picture themselves one day joining the Cup Crew.

 

Great care has been taken over the years to keep the details together to preserve the product integrity. The same machines are still in use, the recipe is the same, and the step-by-step process to create your favorite frozen treats are the same they have been for decades!

 

We feel we can put that much care and effort in embracing the community and sharing experiences with our customers. The hope is to keep that joy of coming to the store the same as when you were a kid, and looking forward to bringing your children here one day to have the same fun.

 

We welcome various ages, but feel it would be more enjoyable for those 4 and above. Our shop is not very large, so we can only schedule a modest number of children at a time. Parents are welcome too, but will count into the total amount of guests.  We can possibly work out multiple dates for larger groups.

 

If you are interested in scheduling a tour, please send an email to ryan@jarlingscustardcup.com