About Tie-Dye Jeff
Jeff's love of Ice Cream started at a very young age in Bocca Raton, FL. He would sneak into the kitchen each night, open a carton of ice cream, from the bottom, eat what he wanted, then sealed the carton. This way no one would yell at him for eating the ice cream.
Jeff was a professional Photographer by trade, but always had a hankerin' for ice cream.
After Tie-Dye Jeff retired and moved to The Villages, FL he got bored within a few months of his retirement. He registered and attended a class at the world's best batch freezer maker in Brooksville, Florida. Once Jeff tasted the ice cream, he called his wife and said, "we can do better than this" and he set out to open his first Ice Cream Store - Mystic Ice Cream in Fruitland Park, FL. He set out to sell ice cream wholesale, but when he visited each account, they were not taking care of the ice cream tubs and freezer burn was ruining the flavor. He stopped selling wholesale and went back to the shop.
Tie-Dye Jeff's first store, Mystic Ice Cream was in the back of a gym on a small country road. One of the gym members knocked on his door and asked if he "had any ice cream for sale". Jeff said yes, but it was only one flavor. The guy said OK and plopped down $2 for the ice cream cup. Shortly after that, another knock on the door. It was a family of 4 asking is he had any ice cream for sale. He said yes, "but I only have coconut flavor available today". The family said yes, asked how much, Tie-Dye Jeff said $4 each. The Dad said no problem and went on their way.
The light bulb went on in Jeff's head. He said, hey, that was a good start for my first day with a retail store. Let's buy a bigger batch freezer and started out making larger batches and a few different flavors. Before he knew it, he was open 6 days a week from 3pm to 8pm.
Mystic Ice Cream was a huge success. Jeff went on to become well known in Central Florida as "The world's best ice cream". People were lining up each day before 3pm, to get in and buy his ice cream.
