PENNSYLVANIA, USA — It's a job many would dream of having: traveling far and wide with the sole purpose of tasting as much ice cream as possible.
The American Dairy Association's chief ice cream officers Maddie Smith and Mia Svirsky are the lucky two sampling their way through Pennsylvania's various creameries and farm-fresh ice cream parlors. The besties met on Instagram three years ago and are both lifestyle influencers who create social content about travel and food.
"One of my followers actually slid into my DMs and was like, 'you love ice cream, you love traveling; you should apply for this,'" Smith said. "And so I immediately sent it to [Mia] and I was like, 'hey, we should both apply; two chances are better than one—maybe they'll pick us.'"
The Association was only planning to employ one chief ice cream offer, but the duo taking on the challenge together was too sweet to pass up.
They've now reached central Pennsylvania, where they hit the following stops:
- Destiny Dairy Bar in Carlisle
- Perrydell Farm and Dairy in York
- Maplehofe Dairy in Quarryville
- Milk House at Oregon Dairy in Lititz
- Fox Meadow Creamery in Ephrata
In total, Smith and Svirsky will visit 18 creameries on dairy farms across Pennsylvania to celebrate National Ice Cream Month.
"It's been cool to see parts of the state that we wouldn't normally get to experience and talk to the people who are making the ice cream, milking the cows and doing everything themselves," Smith said.
The pair even got to scoop ice cream for Pennsylvania Secretary of Agriculture Russell Redding.
"It was fun to get behind the scenes and do that for him," Svirsky said. "We also met with the owner of the farm, and it was just great to be in the community and see him come to this farm and how important it is to him to showcase local farms and get to experience the ice cream that we're experiencing."
New episodes of the ice cream saga are available every Monday in July on American Dairy’s TikTok and Instagram. Smith and Svirsky also post about their trip and the families who own the creameries on their Instagram accounts, @onthemovewithmad and @districteats.