Gifford’s Ice Cream recently announced the opening schedule and a new flavor of ice cream through a partnership with the Boston Red Sox. During a recent interview, Gifford’s Chief Operating Officer (COO) J. C. Gifford discussed these topics as well as the future of Gifford’s in Farmington.
This year, there are multiple milestones and new additions for Gifford’s to celebrate.
“Our family has been serving up ice cream for five generations, and each season is a new opportunity to bring joy to our customers,” said Staci Gifford, VP of Gifford’s Family-Owned Stands. “This year is particularly special as we celebrate the 45th anniversary of our Skowhegan stand and the 35th anniversary of our Waterville stand. We’re also thrilled to introduce a fun, new menu for kids and unveil our completely reimagined mini golf experience. It’s shaping up to be a season full of sweet memories!”
Fan favorites such as French vanilla and Grape Nuts were also announced to be returning to stands.
The Bangor stand will open today, Waterville on March 21, and Skowhegan on April 4. They will all be open daily from noon to 8:30 p.m.
On Tuesday, Gifford’s Ice Cream announced a partnership with the Boston Red Sox baseball team for a new flavor called Cookie Curveball. The flavor itself is a coffee ice cream with bits of chocolate chips and Oreo cookies.
“We’re proud to continue our partnership with Gifford’s HomeMaine Ice Cream and introduce a new Red Sox-themed flavor for our fans,” said Red Sox Chief Marketing and Partnerships Officer Troup Parkinson. “Gifford’s is a family-owned New England brand with a long history of quality and craftsmanship, making them a great partner for us. Cookie Curveball is a unique and indulgent flavor, and we’re excited for Red Sox fans across the region to enjoy it.”
COO J.C. Gifford said that the flavor came about after rounds of surveying children about flavors. Part of that process was providing base flavors of vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, or coffee, then there were mix-in options to check off like brownies, or cookies for example. From there, they chose the most picked and tried different things.
“We had about 12 different flavors concocted after that and whittled those down and then we landed in late September with four flavors,” said Gifford. “In October we went down to Boston and sampled those four flavors and got the Red Sox input, and after the sampling and testing, it got whittled down to two, but there was one clear favorite and that was the Cookie Curveball.”
With 54 full-time employees, Gifford said that between one third to one half of those employees have tried new flavors before they are public and provided input on the decisions. He also shared that some of the flavors that didn’t make the cut could possibly make an appearance for the 2026 season.
Similar to their deal with the Boston Bruins and New England Patriots, Gifford’s has an extended deal that they hope will be long term. The partnership was announced internally in 2024, but due to restraints from the 2023 fire in the Skowhegan factory, the flavor was unable to be produced until now.
The fire, occurring on Groundhog’s Day in 2023, damaged a portion of the building, limiting production. “Then on February 3rd, 2024, we were able to use about 15% of our old footprint to produce ice cream in a slower capacity just because of the restraints of space while the other side of the building was being torn down,” Gifford said.
Gifford also said that they are about six weeks away from getting back to their “new normal.” He shared that the majority of the small businesses they work with have stuck with them during their challenges and continue to support them.
“The folks that offer our ice cream at their locations and their places of business are also part of [our] family and we [have] really felt that over the past two years and it’s been a good thing while you’ve got all the negative stuff going around that we have to deal with on the day-to-day to at least know you’ve got all that support.”
On the topic of support, Gifford recognized that much of that support and many positive interactions came from those who frequented the Farmington stand, and that those interactions are greatly missed.
He said that when the decision was made to close the stand, it was not an easy one, as there were significant generational and family ties to the location. “That’s where my grandparents started the dairy when they bought Pitco’s Dairy up on the hill and it was our second ice cream stand as a family business,” Gifford said.
He said that it was during renovations after damages from flooding that occurred in spring 2023 that the December 2023 flood hit and destroyed all of their progress. And after much debate within the company, it was decided that between that and the fire, they decided that it was best, financially, to sell the stand. Another part of the decision, Gifford said, was that they didn’t have the means to rebuild the stand to the degree that it deserved.
Gifford said that they were playing with the possibility of a new stand in Farmington, once their production in Skowhegan is able to be at 100% again.
“Hopefully, depending on how things shake out with everything else we’re dealing with up here in Skowhegan,” said Gifford. “That it’ll allow us some time to really game plan and think about what’s next to come and see if returning to Farmington is the cards for us.”
To hear the full conversation with JC, look for Saturday Sit-down Chat in the Digital Gallery tomorrow (3/15/25).
