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Anderson Erickson Dairy Ticket Price, Hours, Address and Reviews

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Anderson Erickson Dairy

• Address: 2420 E University Ave, Des Moines, IA 50317, USA, United States Map
• Phone: +1-5152652521
• Tags: Family And Kids

You can take a tour of the Anderson Erickson Dairy. The main dairy plant is located in the beautiful location of Des Moines, USA. The dairy farm has been in the business from the year 1930. They offer high quality milk along with a vast range of other dairy products such as yogurt, cottage cheese, sour creams, dips of many kinds, flavoured milk, buttermilk, creams, ice cream mix and orange juice. You will be happy with the pleasing location of the plant as well. The plant authority keeps two large figurines of a cow and a calf who the local people find interesting. To experience what it takes to produce dairy products in large numbers, you must pay a visit to this place.

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How to Reach Anderson Erickson Dairy

• Bus 10 to stop : E University Ave / E 25th St. DSM
• Bus 17 to stop : Hubbell Ave / E 22 St. DSM

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• Anderson Erickson Dairy Address: 2420 E University Ave, Des Moines, IA 50317, USA, United States
• Anderson Erickson Dairy Contact Number: +1-5152652521
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Anderson Erickson Dairy Reviews & Ratings

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When do you give tours and how large are your tour groups?

As far as I know, there are no actual tours conducted here. Their official website mentions only about the virtual tour. I think it would be better to call them directly on  1 515-265-2521 for updated information. 

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AE Dairy: Celebrating 90 Years of Dairy Delights

December 9, 2020

By Ann Foster Thelen

Since 1930, Anderson Erickson Dairy has been making its signature, delicious dairy products right here in Iowa. Their milk comes from family farms in Iowa, and in less than 24 hours, the milk is transformed into fan-favorite products – cottage cheese, dips, chocolate milk and eggnog, a holiday season favorite. Milk, with nine essential nutrients that are necessary for good health, is a core ingredient in many lovable foods and recipes, during the holidays and throughout the entire year.

Miriam Erickson Brown is the CEO of Anderson Erickson Dairy in Des Moines. Photo courtesy of AE Dairy.

Miriam Erickson Brown, AE Dairy CEO, embraces her role as the guardian of the iconic dairy’s brand while building on the strong legacy of quality, excellence and product innovation. She recently spoke to a group of agricultural leaders and reflected on the company’s 90th anniversary, what it’s been like to lead a company during a global pandemic and how trends impact product development.

Let’s all toast – with a glass of ice-cold milk – to AE Dairy on this milestone of providing undeniably dairy goodness!

Please note, by clicking the following links, you’ll be leaving a partially funded checkoff site.

AE Dairy reached a significant milestone this year; how has the company evolved over the past 90 years?

Erickson Brown: Our goal has always been to help customers enjoy the goodness and the taste of dairy the AE way. It was the foundation of how the company was built, and it’s still true today. AE Dairy was founded in 1930 by my grandfather, Iver Erickson. AE Dairy survived during the depression at a time when there were over 150 other dairies with operating permits in just the greater Des Moines area.

Today, we’re a third-generation family dairy, with approximately 400 employees. We make 250 products, including milk, juices, three different lines of yogurts, cottage cheese, sour cream, dips, eggnog, ice cream mixes, and other items in our one plant on the east side of Des Moines. Consumers can find AE products across Iowa, along the borders of Illinois and Nebraska, south to Kansas City and north to just over the Minnesota border. We focus on excellence and the ultimate customer experience.

We have heard that when Iowans who have moved away come back to the state for visits, they often take a cooler full of AE products back home. What makes AE’s products so special?

Erickson Brown: We love hearing those stories! AE is a different kind of dairy. All our products are made with specially selected ingredients, such as European cocoas, real vanillas at two and three times the standard amounts, fresh cream and milk from Iowa family farms. The intentional way we make our products takes time, patience, expertise and flexibility. AE products are continually evaluated on taste and performance, consistency and overall appeal in our on-site laboratory and a weekly Thursday taste test with our management team and owners. We do countless things to ensure our products are hours fresh and just right for our customers’ enjoyment.

Go behind-the-scenes at AE Dairy’s Thursday taste test . Also, just in time for the holidays, try AE Dairy’s Egg Nog Trifle dessert.  

2020 has been a challenging year for nearly everyone. What are some of the specific challenges AE has faced this year?

Erickson Brown: We work every single day to guide AE to a place of strength and purpose. Like many others, we faced unknowns during the year. The pandemic closed down many customers overnight, while increasing grocery store sales restored milk purchases to a five-year high, all during the very first week of COVID closures.

Then we had the August derecho, which caused a power outage for about six hours, followed by a decreased power supply for the next 24 hours. When you deal with a fresh product like milk, that can present a significant problem, but I’m proud of how we managed it. Hurricane Laura blew through the south, leaving packaging and resin shortages for all of us to manage in its wake.

We have a just-in-time inventory, which means everything we make is fresh. Packaging products in advance isn’t an option for us unless it’s maybe a day or two with culture items like yogurts or sour cream. When the pandemic began, our finely tuned organized process came to a screeching halt overnight, and we dealt with unheard-of demands. I prayed for our employees’ safety so that they could continue to bring dairy products to families who were depending on us. They needed a constant. I wanted that to be us in our own small, little way.

Tell us more about how COVID-19 challenged your business.

Erickson Brown: In thinking about all the different ways that the coronavirus has impacted us at AE, I realize it’s also disrupted the personal way we like to do business. For example, we have a team of employees whose job is to hand out product samples in grocery stores. These are new flavors, seasonal products or customer favorites. When COVID-19 hit – almost immediately – grocers closed their salad bars, removed their self-serve bulk food items, and stopped allowing any in-store product sampling.

We introduced four wonderful and unique flavors of lactose-free yogurt in the untimely month of March. Unfortunately, without our sampling team, we could never get those off the ground and discontinued those products in early fall.

How does AE continue to stay relevant in a market that can often be crowded with trends and fads?

Erickson Brown: We are living in a time when there are major shifts in the way people view food, family, the environment, social responsibilities and the list goes on – all of which influence our consumers’ mindsets before they even buy a gallon of milk. The fact that three decades of scientific research supports dairy products’ role in overall health is reassuring to us at AE. Still, we spend a lot of time helping our customers understand the benefits of dairy and especially the benefits of real milk.

Flavor trends, consumer preferences, and purchase behavior are always changing. I call it the big tornado. Whole milk has overtaken 2% as the most popular white milk; 10 years ago, we would never have predicted this surge. Cottage cheese and eggnog are trendy products with millennials as compared to their parents. We are always working on new products and love to combine current trends with dairy. We have a long and successful history of product and flavor firsts in our industry. Dark Chocolate Milk, Milk Nog, Sea Salt and Pepper Cottage Cheese, and Mexican Hot Chocolate Yogurt are examples of ways we found current trends with dairy products.

AE Dairy product lines. Photo courtesy of AE Dairy.

How does AE ensure its customers have a wonderful experience with its products?

Erickson Brown: We are fortunate because Iowa’s farmers supply us with the best milk anywhere in the U.S. Hands down, they have access to the best quality feed, and their expertise is second to none. However, in producing dairy products, you can use the same formula every time, and there will always be slight differences in the way a product turns out. That’s why we depend so heavily on an employee’s experience, training and intuition while making and packaging our products. Making dairy products is part art and part science, and our employees embody the AE brand.

For example, we generally make cottage cheese the same way, yet the cooking and the culture and times always vary. Environmental factors, such as the weather, the age of the cultures, and even the room’s humidity, can cause slight differences in how the product develops. Our goal is always to address all these things before they reach customers. Our dedicated employees help us make that happen. We can’t run our business without the creativity, ingenuity and intelligence of committed employees who understand our purpose and are not satisfied with mediocrity.

If the process of creating, making, packaging and delivering dairy products becomes more important than our customer experience, then everything we do quickly becomes irrelevant.

Vintage Egg Nog carton, photo courtesy of AE Dairy.

Eggnog is a holiday favorite for many. What makes it so popular?

Erikson Brown: Millennials love eggnog, and we’ve seen the popularity growing. In the last three years, eggnog has been written about in the Wall Street Journal and national media. It’s one of those consumer behavior things that couldn’t necessarily be predicted, and you’re thankful when it comes your way. When it comes to eggnog, the most frequent question we receive is, "Are those eggs pasteurized?" Of course, I say, "Yes, they are; they have to be."

Anderson Erickson Dairy

I was also taken on a tour through the entire facility, seeing start to finish of how the dairy creates each product.  If you’ve ever watched How It’s Made you would be just as fascinated as I was. The first step is attaining raw milk.  AE does not own the actual farms and milking cows, they purchase the raw milk from Iowa farmers.  Miriam explained that this separation is actually very important because each container of raw milk that comes in is tested before it is unloaded and if it doesn’t meet all the AE standards it is rejected.  AE’s slogan is “ridiculously high standards” and it’s not just a figure of speech, at AE they test at every level of production to make sure their products are the highest quality they can possibly be.

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of AE Dairy via Burst Media. The opinions and text are all mine.

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Anderson Erickson brings back vintage carton designs

The company’s french onion and party dips feature the nostalgic cartons..

To mark its 90th anniversary, Des Moines, Iowa-based Anderson Erickson (AE) Dairy said it is serving up a little nostalgia by bringing back vintage carton designs for its much-loved AE French Onion and Party dips.

"We know that consumers are looking to food as part of their entertainment, and they're snacking more at home. We saw this as a way to add to the fun," said Kim Peter, director of marketing and public relations. "Longtime fans may remember these carton designs, which are sure to bring back enjoyable memories of the past and life's simple pleasures."

According to AE Dairy, the vintage AE Party dip design features vibrant orange and blue balloons for each letter in "P-A-R-T-Y," while the French Onion dip carton uses classic fonts and nostalgic colors such as lilac, purple and teal green. AE Dairy's French Onion and Party dips are the first in a series of AE Dairy products that will feature limited-time vintage packaging designs this fall in celebration of AE Dairy's 90th anniversary. AE products can be found at area grocers, and the vintage cartons will be available through year-end.

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Seasonal & Holidays

Ae dairy churns out a holiday favorite: classic egg nog is heading to stores now, a new variety of anderson erickson dairy egg nog also debuts this year, but the treats are only here through the holiday season..

Melissa Myers , Patch Staff

DES MOINES, IA -- Iowa's favorite holiday gift in the quart-sized deep gold package has made its seasonal return: Anderson Erickson Dairy's Classic Egg Nog is back in production.

Kim Peter, director of marketing for AE, said loyal fans have been emailing the east Des Moines dairy for about a month asking when the treat will be available. Some have referred to it as "liquid gold" and "sweet golden awesomeness."

"It's a much-loved product," she told Patch Friday. "It's one of those nostalgic treats people associate with happy times and family memories. We've told them the wait is almost over; we just started making egg nog this week."

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AE's egg nog, as its many fans know, is a family recipe with a unique thick and creamy taste. It is produced with milk and cream that are "hours fresh from Iowa family farms," Peter told Patch. "We use fully pasteurized cream, a sprinkle of real nutmeg and gourmet-quality vanilla."

"We tell people you haven't tried egg nog until you've tried AE egg nog," she said.

Hy-Vee in Pleasant Hill claimed to be the first store in the Des Moines metro area to stock the coveted treat when it posted photos on its Facebook page Thursday showing the dairy case being filled with the quart-sized cartons.

And the photos also show something so new that Peter told Patch there aren't even company photos available yet: a new AE Low Sugar Egg Nog in quart-sized red cartons.

"We had light egg nog for many years," she said. "The new lower sugar is more on trend with what consumers want. And in the bright red carton, they will be able to spot that."

The lower-sugar product has 25 percent less sugar than the regular egg nog and a little less fat, Peter said.

AE products are available throughout Iowa and parts of adjacent states, extending as far as the metro Kansas City area -- on both sides of the Missouri River, Peter said. But not every store carries all products the dairy makes.

So when will egg nog hit local stores?

"It kind of depends on the store when it makes it on the shelves," Peter said. "I'd say some places will have it this weekend."

Other AE seasonal products, the After Dinner Mint and Dark Chocolate milks, rolled into stores in September, along with a new Hazelnut Chocolate milk. All are available in plastic quart bottles, while milk nog is sold in half-gallon sizes. AE also debuted an egg nog yogurt last year and that returns this season, along with pumpkin cheesecake yogurt. Both will be available through the holiday season.

Peter couldn't say how much egg nog the 87-year-old family dairy sells each year, but estimated "there's probably enough for every Iowan to enjoy at least a carton for themselves."

"We tell people to buy one and freeze one," she added, noting it is good to use when making French toast or adding to coffee or chai tea. She said egg nog can be frozen for up to a year in its original carton, then simply "thaw it for 24 hours and give it a good shake." Once thawed, it should be consumed within a few days.

The dairy even has recipes online, including family recipes and some created just for AE, like the Egg Nog Upside Down French Toast .

"We have some other seasonal products," Peter said, "but certainly egg nog is a fun time of year. We love it."

AE Classic Egg Nog rolls off the production line early Thursday morning./Photo courtesy of Tommy Little

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Home • Who We Are • Leadership

Meet the People Behind Your

Favorite ae products.

The Anderson Erickson Dairy leadership team does things differently. We don’t have to be as invested as we are, but it’s part of our commitment to consistent quality and innovation. We’re passionate about our dairy products, and from weekly taste-testing to brainstorming new flavors, we’re involved at every step. From all of us, thanks for making AE Dairy a daily guest in your fridge.

Miriam Erickson Brown Chair and CEO

Years with ae: 38 years.

Warren Erickson President and CFO

Years with ae: 26 years, human resources, years with ae: 4 years.

Primary Focus: To attract and maintain a happy workforce. Favorite AE Products: Salt & Pepper Cottage Cheese and Chocolate Milk

Plant Operations

Years with ae: 1 year.

Primary Focus: To ensure the 250 products we make are packaged to meet our high standards. This means promoting a culture of excellence with employees, while keeping products cold and moving for a smooth transition from production to loadout. Favorite AE Products: Egg Nog

Quality Supervisor

Years with ae: 5 years.

Primary Focus: To assure the consistency of our Ridiculously High Standards for all our products so we delight our customers. Favorite AE Products: Old Fashioned Cottage Cheese and Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Yogurt

Primary Focus: To drive the AE brand forward in the marketplace. Favorite AE Product: Chocolate Milk

Sales and Distribution

Primary Focus: To facilitate sales account development and product flow that meets the needs of our customers. Favorite AE Product: Old Fashioned Cottage Cheese

Distribution Manager

Primary Focus: To ensure the fleet of AE trucks, trailers and vans are ready, equipped and maintained for the distribution of our products. Favorite AE Products: Whole Chocolate Milk and Buffalo Ranch Sour Cream Dip

Marketing Manager

Primary Focus: To promote the AE brand and the good news about dairy and health. Favorite AE Products: After Dinner Mint Chocolate Milk and Party Sour Cream Dip

Perseverance for Pie

The longest time in development for a new yogurt flavor was more than 10 years. Meanwhile, the most challenging yogurt flavor to get right was Strawberry Rhubarb Pie.

The Same High Standards for Sustainability

AE Dairy shares the concern to treat our earth well, leaving Iowa a clean and beautiful place for future generations. From recycling resources to sourcing local ingredients, a greener world is a better world. Learn more about our current initiatives for sustainability.

Support a Tradition of Excellence with a Career at AE

Being a different kind of dairy takes hard work, but at AE, we take care of our own. Consider starting a career at AE Dairy.