The Beloved Pennsylvania Ice Cream That Some Say Tastes Like Medicine

Teaberry ice cream is a wildly popular flavor in Pennsylvania but not so much in other states. Part of the reason the teaberry's popularity never caught on nationwide is that it has a distinct and divisive flavor: medicine.

The ice cream is pink in color, and the flavoring comes from the small red fruit teaberry where it gets its name. Pinpointing the exact flavor profile of the fruit, and ice cream, is not an easy task. "Teaberry is sweet, a touch tart, and tastes much like wintergreen," The Morning Call writes. American wintergreen is another name for the fruit that grows in New England and Pennsylvania, and that strong wintergreen flavor is what makes the teaberry ice cream so polarizing. 

Many people liken the wintergreen-heavy taste of teaberry ice cream to medicine. Some believe it tastes similar to Pepto Bismol, which may also be informed by the ice cream's pink coloring. Others have said that the strong minty-spicy flavor reminds them of Bengay. Just as strongly as some ice cream enthusiasts dislike teaberry, there are those who crave it. Although tracking down the frozen treat is not always an easy task, as its popularity has waned over the years.

Even in Pennsylvania, where teaberry ice cream has a strong fanbase, it can be challenging to procure, as major chains do not carry it. "[M]aybe i'm the only person who enjoys teaberry ice cream, but can someone pl[ea]s[e] explain to me why it's never available at the grocery store?" one frustrated teaberry lover tweeted. Although a few big-name ice cream vendors, such as Turkey Hill and Yuengling's, manufacture teaberry, the flavoring is mostly relegated to smaller companies and independent shops. 

"[O]ur Teaberry Delight ice cream is right up there with butterscotch candies and crackerjacks for 'best treat of a bygone era,'" PennState Berkey Creamery writes on their website. Part of teaberry's popularity is due to nostalgia. Franklin Fountain in Old City, Pennsylvania, is an ice cream parlor that uses old-time machinery to offer a variety of flavors, including teaberry. One of the shop's owners, Eric Berley, is a staunch defender of the wintergreen-flavored treat. "Sadly, it's one of our lowest selling flavors, but we don't give up on her. She's in the cabinet to stay," Berley told BillyPenn in 2019.

In defense of the ice cream flavor with medicinal-flavored undertones, the shop owner believes teaberry works perfectly to make a rootbeer float. While it may not be a present-day fan favorite, teaberry was a top-selling chewing gum flavor in the 60s and played an integral part in the early popularity of gum.

The D.L. Clark Company created teaberry-flavored chewing gum, simply called Clark's Teaberry, in the early 1900s in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They used oil from teaberry plants to extract the wintergreen flavoring. At the time, chewing gum was used almost strictly for medicinal purposes, such as masking chronic bad breath or to help distract a person with nervous habits, according to Snack History.

Over the years, Clark's Teaberry gum grew in popularity and hit its apex in the 60s. This was thanks in part to a successful commercial campaign that introduced the Teaberry Shuffle. In the commercials, uptight people were shown letting loose once they ate a stick of Clark's gum and breaking out in the Teaberry Shuffle as Herb Alpert's "Tijuana Brass" played — which was a hit song at the time.

Today, tracking down a pack of teaberry gum is much easier than finding teaberry ice cream. The Gerrit J. Verburg Co., based out of Michigan, manufactures Gerrit's Teaberry Gum. Packages can be bought on their website and are even available on major outlets such as Amazon and Walmart. Even though teaberry may never regain widespread popularity, there still appears to be a demand for the strong-flavored treat.