After 70 years of sweetening lives, San Jose’s first family of ice cream is retiring from the business.
Later this week Bob Mauseth and his siblings will close the small Treat Ice Cream factory on South 19th Street, where the creamy concoctions have flowed into the instantly recognizable tubs since 1951, the year their parents — Alfred (aka “Mr. Treat”) and Dorothy — founded the business.
“We had always strived to provide the best quality at a fair price, and we had always planned to just peacefully close someday,” said Bob Mauseth, who took over operating the business from his father a couple of decades ago. “We weren’t ever going to sell the Treat trademark name.”
But one thing led to another — and the result is a sweet parting gift for their devoted customers and continued employment for their longest-tenured workers. Mauseth negotiated with Marianne’s Ice Cream of Santa Cruz to buy the factory’s machinery, then agreed to also sell the Treat name and flavors to the “friendly competitor” over the hill.
“I was somewhat reluctant at first,” he said, “but the thought of folks being able to still get the same family recipes won me over.”
Just the mention of “Treat” in the South Bay can prompt a heated discussion of best flavors. Top sellers include Tin Roof Sundae, Mango and the rising-in-popularity Ube, and the list of flavors on the wall outside the manufacturing room lists dozens, from Banana Nut to Pumpkin to Watermelon Sherbet.
Three longtime employees — Jeff Bosmans, Mario Rosales and Shannon Cook — will work in Santa Cruz on the Treat production line for Marianne’s owners, Kelly Dillon and Charlie Wilcox.
“We respect the tradition of what Bob and his family have done,” said Dillon, who noted that they plan to continue filling Treat’s commercial orders.
The Treat folks will have plenty of acquired knowledge to share.
“We’ve been cooking our own fudge in-house, making our own fruit ripples and buying local Watsonville strawberries, black raspberries from Oregon and mangoes direct from Manila,” said Mauseth, who can detail the ingredients of every flavor on the board. Take the Coffee Almond Fudge, for example. “We use pure Colombian coffee, our homemade fudge. And the almonds are diced large and dark-roasted for a good crunch.”
Plant manager Bosmans, a 25-year veteran, is quick to mention the Chocolate Fantasy, an ultra-rich combination of chocolate ice cream, a fudge ribbon and chocolate chips. And those are no average chips; they’re semi-dark ones specially developed to retain their mouth-feel when frozen.
Marble Black Raspberry, prized for its combination of sweetness and tartness, is Rosales’ favorite. “I have a big hand in making it too,” he said.
Treat’s storied run in the Roosevelt Park neighborhood near downtown started when Al Mauseth, who had grown up in San Jose, came back to town after earning a dairy science degree at UC Davis and went into business.
Although San Jose had a rich history of creameries, Treat notably joined the postwar flurry of Bay Area ice cream companies. Marianne’s had opened in Santa Cruz four years earlier, in 1947; Earle Swensen, who — like Mauseth — was a World War II Navy veteran, started Swensen’s in San Francisco in 1948; and the East Bay-based Loard’s was founded in 1950. Mitchell’s in San Francisco came along two years after Treat, in 1953.
Al Mauseth was the only one of that group who became a wholesale ice cream maker and never opened a scoop shop. Instead, Treat makes private-label versions of ice cream for the locally owned Lunardi’s chain, with its eight Bay Area stores, and supplies ice cream to the Willow Glen Creamery, Sweet Retreat and the Palo Alto Creamery, among other retailers.
Last month, the Mauseth siblings — brothers Bob and Brian and sister Mary Grometer — got together at the factory to reminisce about growing up in the ice cream business.
Brian remembers as a kid making late-night snacks of Cap’n Crunch mixed with Treat’s rich vanilla and his family supplying the sundae fixings for the annual Willow Glen United Methodist Church ice-cream social at the old roller rink on Stevens Creek Boulevard.
During his post-high school years working for his father, he would drive the Treat truck to San Francisco’s Chinatown to pick up ingredients like ginger and lychee. “Those flavors are long gone,” replaced by trendier ones, Brian said. “Now it’s ube and mango.”
Despite Treat’s wholesale business model, some savvy ice cream lovers have found their way throughout the years to the door of the small, hidden-from-view factory to buy tubs in person.
Among them are the firefighters of Station No. 8 two blocks away, who have regularly stocked the firehouse freezer with Treat’s, according to Bob, and stopped by a few days ago to drop off an appreciation lunch for the Treat crew.
Kevin and Jessica Armstrong, residents of nearby Naglee Park, have been bringing their kids over to pick up tubs since reading about Treat.
“It was such a fun discovery,” Kevin said. “The most incredible thing about it was that it was fresh ice cream. The flavors pop more. The consistency is creamier.”
And while he’s happy their favorite Treat flavors will remain in production, he’ll miss having the factory nearby.
“It was the best neighborhood gem.”
