Cool Stop, Mayfield Dairy

What: Mayfield Dairy Plant Tour
Where: Braselton, Georgia
When: Monday – Friday, 9 – 5 pm (last tour at 4 pm), Saturday, 9 – 2 pm (last tour at 1 pm)
Cost: Free, but you’ll spend about $2 – $3 for an ice cream cone afterwards

Every time I travel up I-85 toward Charlotte, I pass a sign for the Mayfield Dairy Tour. Since I LOOOVVVEE ice cream, it always catches my eye and I think “we should go there.” Well, on a trip to get shoes at the Commerce Outlets, we did.

We started our tour with a short video, which was more like a long commercial for Mayfield. After the movie, we donned our hairnets and went into the plant. We saw the large machines that process the milk, including the Aro-Vac. When cows eat onions or other strong foods, it can change the way the milk tastes. The Aro-Vac uses heat and steam to vaporize and remove unwanted flavors and odors from the milk. We also saw the trucks that bring the milk in (24 hours a day) and watched them fill the bottles. It was an interesting tour, especially for a bunch of city kids who think milk comes from Publix. Couple this with a tour of Cagle’s Dairy (which is about the same distance up I-75 in Cherokee County) and you’ve got a great lesson in how milk gets from the cow to the table.

Of course, the best part for me was the ice cream (which is made in the Athens, TN plant). Mint Chocolate Chip. Mmmmmmmm