UNL Dairy Store pays tribute to new UNL President with 'Heart of Gold' ice cream flavor

With its handmade ice cream and prime location at the entrance to East Campus, the Dairy Store is a crowd favorite at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a fitting venue for welcoming a university president.

The Nebraska Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources hosted an event Sept. 19 at the Dairy Store to unveil an ice cream flavor created in honor of the new University of Nebraska-Lincoln president, Jeffery Gold. Dairy industry leaders and university partners who provide product to the Dairy Store, which opened in 1917, attended the celebration.

In July, the Board of Regents appointed Gold as president, placing him next in line to continue the tradition of ice cream flavors created to commemorate UNL's presidents. The last president, Ted Carter, chose Carter Coffee Crunch in 2021, and another former president Hank M. Bounds chose Bounds Mississippi Mud in 2015.

Gold worked with dairy store employees to develop his signature flavor, a white mint chocolate chip ice cream. He said it was an easy choice. Gold was then tasked with choosing a name.

"We asked hundreds of people," Gold said at the Sept. 19 event. "We got a lot of different suggestions, and we ended up with 'Heart of Gold.'"

Two key areas of Gold's life may have inspired the name. Gold previously served as the Chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center and practiced as a cardiac surgeon. Gold said ice cream also sparked the romance with his wife, Robin Gold.

The Golds met working in a campus ice cream store at Cornell University in New York. They celebrated their 50-year anniversary this year with a trip to a new ice cream shop in the city where their romance began. Robin Gold shares her husband's favorite flavor of mint chip.

Remembering the rich mint chocolate chip ice cream cones he enjoyed as a child, Gold said he wanted to be sure The Dairy Store would do his favorite flavor justice. The producers suggested a white mint for a more sophisticated taste.

"My wife and I really enjoy ice cream and are a bit picky about what type of ice cream we enjoy, where it comes from, and how it's made ... things of that nature," Gold said. "So we took this pretty seriously."

Duy Nguyen, a manager at the UNL Dairy Store for more than four years, also shared an ice cream-inspired love story.

"I actually met my wife at the dairy store. At that time, I think we were getting the white chocolate lavender ice cream," Nguyen said. "We got married three years ago, so it's been 11 years together."

Nguyen said students across the university system are involved in the dairy store's day-to-day operations. Food science students working in the Food Processing Center make the ice cream and students of various majors work behind the counter to serve it.

"We are the front door. Every student, when they visit East Campus, will stop by the dairy store," Nguyen said. "And also, who doesn't want to work for the university, right? It's a proud job and also an opportunity to contribute your talent."

UNL's Dairy Store isn't just a home for delicious ice cream flavors; it's the last stop for Nebraska's latest innovations in the dairy industry.

Bob Larson, owner of dairy farm Larson Farms in Creston, attended the event as well. He said the time from cow to cone is remarkably fast.

“When we milk the cow, the milk is cooled down to 38 degrees right away,” Larson said. “A truck picks it up and takes it to processing, and then 48 to 60 hours later. It’s literally getting back out the door as a processed product.”

While Larson farm products don’t end up at the Dairy Store, the methods they use are driving the operations of many Nebraskan dairy farms that do provide products to the university.

As a fourth-generation dairy farmer, Larson has seen his family business transition from a traditional farm to an efficient, high-tech operation - complete with robots that milk cows.

“In 2018, we made the jump into building a new barn with four robots in it and milking cows in there,” Larson said.

As Larson Farms increases its labor efficiency, they’re also considering animal welfare and environmental sustainability. Solar panels, LED lights and recycling water for crops are three measures they have implemented to reduce their carbon footprint.

With a selection of ever-changing flavors, Heart of Gold will only be available for a limited time.

“I hope everybody comes and enjoys it,” Gold said. “It’ll be stocked all throughout our athletic facilities, obviously here in the dairy store. And having now sampled it twice, I give it a total thumbs up.”