Three Twins Ice Cream was an American

organic Organic may refer to: * Organic, of or relating to an organism, a living entity * Organic, of or relating to an anatomical organ Chemistry * Organic matter, matter that has come from a once-living organism, is capable of decay or is the product ...

ice cream company based in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, established in 2005. Three Twins owned and operated three brick and mortar

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

shops in

Northern California Northern California (commonly shortened to NorCal) is a geocultural region that comprises the northern portion of the U.S. state of California, spanning the northernmost 48 of the state's List of counties in California, 58 counties. Northern Ca ...

and was a nationwide wholesaler of ice cream products. It closed in April 2020.

History

Three Twins was established in 2005 in Terra Linda,

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city in and the county seat of Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of th ...

. It was started by

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

graduate Neal Gottlieb and was named for Gottlieb, his twin brother, and his brother's wife, who is also a twin. It was the first organic ice cream shop chain in the U.S. The company began distributing its products nationally after

Whole Foods Whole foods are foods that are unprocessed and unrefined. Examples of whole foods include grains such as oatmeal and rice, fruits, vegetables, dried beans, nuts, seeds, unprocessed meats, and fish. Depending on the context this may sometimes refe ...

found them selling their ice cream at the Berkeley Farmers Market. Three Twins opened a factory in

Petaluma, California Petaluma is a city in Sonoma County, California, United States, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 according to the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

in 2010. In mid-2019 it moved all manufacturing operations to the former plant of Zurheide Ice Cream in

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(which it had purchased in 2014); its corporate headquarters remained in Petaluma. On April 17, 2020, the company announced it was closing due to financial problems compounded by the

coronavirus pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Locations

By November 2017, the company owned and operated four shops, in San Francisco, Larkspur, and Napa in addition to San Rafael, and licensed stores in

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Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, and at the

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, and was exporting to South Korea. A licensed location at Fisherman's Wharf had closed. The San Francisco shop, in the Lower Haight, closed in January 2018. By April 2020, the Santa Monica location had also closed and the company had licensed/franchise locations in

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

and

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Products

Three Twins' flavors rotated between core offerings such as Mint Confetti (mint ice cream with flecks of dark chocolate) and Strawberry Je Ne Sais Quoi (strawberry with a hint of balsamic vinegar), and specialty flavors such as Cookie Jar (vanilla with three types of cookies). Its original shop garnered attention with some offbeat offerings, such as Mutton Vindaloo and the"most expensive sundae in the world" (no takers yet) and a "

Sergio Romo Sergio Francisco Romo (born March 4, 1983) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the San Francisco Giants, Los Angeles Dodgers, Tampa Bay Rays, Miami Marlins, Minnesota Twins, Oakland ...

Mexican Chocolate" flavor with the motto "It only tastes illegal." The expensive dessert was an Absurdity Sundae that cost $3,333.33 and included banana split drenched in syrups from rare dessert wines (German

Trockenbeerenauslese ''Trockenbeerenauslese'' (, ), or TBA, is a German or Austrian botrytized wine made entirely from the individually selected grapes fully "dried" from Botrytis cinerea ("noble rot"), hence the name. ''Trockenbeerenauslese'' is a very sweet wine, ...

, 1960s vintage port, and a Chateau D’Yquem).

References

External links

*{{Official website, http://threetwinsicecream.com/ Food and drink in the San Francisco Bay Area Ice cream parlors in California Companies based in Sonoma County, California 2005 establishments in California 2020 disestablishments in California Dairy products companies in California Defunct ice cream parlors in the United States