Miss Mona Makes Ice Cream

Writing by Kayla Schmidt

Photography by Jonathan Baskin

W

ho doesn’t like ice cream? It can serve as a sweet treat, a midday snack or even a way of bringing people together. Mona Lipson, owner and creator of Miss Mona Makes Ice Cream, began making/delivering ice cream during lockdown, and just one year later, she was officially in business.

Why did you decide to start your business?

I started making ice cream for fun during COVID, and I really enjoyed it. But my freezer quickly filled up, and I needed to get rid of it to make more. I was living in Brooklyn at the time, so I decided to leave pints of ice cream in my friends’ lobbies or on their stoops. I texted them and let them know, and I took a picture to post on Instagram. The next thing I knew, random people were just asking me for ice cream. So for all of lockdown, I just made ice cream for free, and I dropped it across New York City and sometimes Long Island. Then, in the spring of 2021, I left my job, and I thought, What better time to start an ice cream company? I got a certification to make ice cream in a kitchen, set up an LLC, opened a bank account and did all the things needed to legally sell ice cream. When I launched my ice cream business, Miss Mona Makes Ice Cream, my whole concept was to work and collaborate with other small businesses. Together, we create unique, fun flavors that feature all of my mix-ins and swirls and chunks. 

What makes your business different?

The connection to our community. I like to think that ice cream is a way to help bring people together, as well as give voice to people who might not always have a voice. I view my brand as a vehicle for bringing people together and establishing a sense of community.

How has your community supported you?

When I first started selling my ice cream in Brooklyn, it was a subscription model; people really had to commit because they couldn’t choose the flavors because they had to buy three at once. So the fact that so many people took a chance and bought it really made me feel like I had something going. When I moved up to Westchester, I had to start from scratch. I started to sell ice cream at Food Truck Fridays in Pound Ridge, and I met so many amazing community members. Just having the support of the community for my small business has been really gratifying. And I’m new; I’ve only lived here for two years, so it’s really made me feel like I was welcomed to the area.

Who else has supported you?

A lot of the other small businesses have really supported me, and the support is mutual. I use cookie dough from a local company out of Mount Kisco called Red Velvet NYC, and they’ve been incredibly supportive. I would also say that the Katonah Reading Room has been incredibly supportive and helped me with finding products and kitchen space. So many other local Westchester businesses have really been a great help and support, too.

When did you first fall in love with ice cream?

I can’t remember a time I wasn’t obsessed with ice cream, to be honest. I remember going to sleepovers with my best friend, and we used to go to the grocery store and buy pints of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream and squish on her family’s La-Z-Boy. We would watch Police Academy movies because there were, like, a million of them. Those are probably some of my earliest memories, eating ice cream with my best friend.

Ben & Jerry’s has very interesting flavors. Have they inspired you?

Ben & Jerry’s was one of the first to really put big chunks in ice cream, and they’re a very socially conscious company. They used their business as a force for good before anyone else. Really, I would say Ben & Jerry’s and maybe Patagonia are two OGs of using business as a means for also solving societal needs. So that’s something I knew I always wanted to do if I started a company. I wanted to make sure that whatever I was doing was also helping people in my community and society. Also, my mom is from Guatemala, and I have a nonprofit there called Guatemala Healing Hands Foundation; I’ve definitely taken a lot of inspiration from native flavors.

Why is your ice cream packaged in little boxes instead of cartons?

The environment is really important to me, so I use these little boxes because ice cream pints are usually not recyclable or compostable because of the waxy coating on the inside. I’ve made sure these little cardboard boxes can actually be rinsed off and recycled, or rinsed off, torn into pieces and composted, because it’s just cardboard without any waxy coating.

What have you learned?

I have learned that my favorite part of the business is getting to meet people; I really do love the community aspect of it. However, I have also learned so much about the science of ice cream. I even met an ice cream scientist who’s become a very good friend of mine. She literally has a PhD in ice cream, and we actually ran an ice cream campaign in 2020 called Ice Cream for Change, where we worked with ice cream companies around the country to help raise money for social justice causes. 

Did anything stand out/surprise you about the science of ice cream?

Yes, how few ingredients it takes, but the ratio of those ingredients is critical. You really only need milk, cream, sugar, maybe eggs, but you can make it without eggs, and I like to add a little bit of salt and milk powder. That’s it. That’s all you really need. But if you mess up those ratios, either your ice cream is going to be all ice, never going to freeze, or going to melt too fast. All of these things together are really important, which I found really interesting and never would’ve expected.

What’s one mistake you’ve made?

I’ve definitely made some bad flavors. I was once trying to make an ice cream flavor with tahini, and it almost ended up being some kind of peanut butter; the ratio was entirely messed up when I made it. When I tested it at home, it came out great. And then when I did it in the kitchen with the big machine, it was a disaster. I had to throw out 75 pints of ice cream, and I had to refund 75 people. So I had to let everybody know that I was so sorry it didn’t come out the way I intended and that I’d refund them.

Did you ever wind up mastering it?

No, not yet. But I think if I changed my technique, I could. It really is such a science. But I do think ice cream could be a really great way to get more girls and women into sciences and STEAM careers. When you can turn science into something that’s creative, it can attract a lot of people who are not necessarily naturally science people.

What tips/advice would you give to someone who wants to start a food business?

So, number one, there are a lot of rules and regulations, and those rules and regulations vary depending on your location and the type of food. You need to be well versed in the food regulations, and maybe that means talking to as many food businesses as possible to understand and learn as much as you can. The second thing I would say is that you should try and build your newsletter or database before you really start. I think that was one of my best moves.

Where do you see your business in the future?

I would like to keep it small. I would, of course, love to connect with more of the community, but I really like where things are, and I think my business would really lose its quality and its specialness if it got bigger.

What is your dream?

It’s a shared dream that my friend, the ice cream scientist Maya Warren, and I share. I would love to be able to go around the world and eat ice cream with kids and communities. It would allow me to do two things: one, get to taste local flavors and learn about local ice cream, and two, potentially give ice cream and have ice cream with communities who maybe have never had it before. I definitely like to incorporate different cultures into my flavors. 

This article was published in the November/December 2024 edition of Connect to Northern Westchester.