In Person of Interest we talk to the people catching our eye right now about their projects past and present. Next up is Jeni Britton, founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, who spoke with Bon Appétit about her new fiber brand, Floura.
What’s the thing Jeni Britton needs most in her life right now? The answer to that question changes with the time, day, and seasons. At one point she craved community and a place to express the creativity surging through her. That’s how she arrived at ice cream, opening a scoop shop that she built into a beloved brand and empire, with locations in 29 cities and pints of ice cream in grocery stores across the US. During the pandemic, long walks in the woods and a daily habit of eating lots of fruit led Jeni to realize what she needed was something simpler—fiber. And she had an inkling we needed it too. Now, 23 years after founding Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, she is back with a new offering. Floura is a fiber company, one that luxuriates in flavor and roots itself in the senses. Its first product is a fiber bar with the same name. It features 13 grams of fiber and 12 whole plants, such as watermelon and apples, all sourced from food trimmings previously destined for waste. In the end, this fiber bar is meant to deliver on the same promise she made with ice cream: to make you feel good. We caught up with Jeni to hear all about it.
How did you arrive at fiber as your next project?
JB: It’s a bit of a long story, but I started eating a lot of blueberries and I started to feel better than ever before. My business partner, Mark, was like, “the blueberries are fiber.” My whole body started changing because of fiber, and the more I learned, the more I wanted to make sure I was getting enough. Something like 95 percent of people are deficient in fiber. Many of the chronic illnesses we have lead back to the fact that the industrial food system has removed fiber from our diets. So this ends up being a roundabout way of saying, whatever my most pressing need is kind of becomes my whole life.
How did food become the pathway to a solution and transformation for you?
JB: I’ve always been very aware of my sensorial thinking or wisdom. I think that’s probably one of the reasons I fell in love with ice cream because it is so deeply sensory. Being in the world of ice cream for so long is probably why I felt like there’s a food product there, and you know that I’m probably the best one to make a fiber bar now.
Photograph by Marissa Alper
