3 Friends is a Finnish ice cream producer based in Helsinki. Known for artisanal super-premium ice creams in pints, sticks and cones, 3 Friends crafts ice cream from real, natural ingredients. For 3 Friends, it's the inside that matters. After a decade in ice cream manufacturing, 3 Friends has become the most recommended brand in Finland with its award-winning flavours and distinctive packaging design.

We make our ice cream in our own ice cream factory in Kivikko, located in eastern Helsinki.

The taste of our ice cream comes from real, natural ingredients – without artificial flavors, colors, or additives. Essences are not for us. We don’t add unnecessary air to our ice cream or put anything in the tub that doesn’t belong there. The most important thing in our ice cream is what’s inside. We want you to enjoy with confidence. You don’t have to choose – you can live life to the fullest and make conscious decisions.

Our ice cream is sold by supermarkets of all sizes around Finland, including the S-kaupat and Kesko chains, as well as hundreds of R-kioskis. You can check the availability at www.s-kaupat.fi or www.k-ruoka.fi (websites in Finnish), to name a few options. In addition to shops, our ice cream is sold at many cafés, restaurants, hotels and fuel stations, and you can order home deliveries through Wolt, Foodora and Oda. Please note that we do not currently sell ice cream directly to consumers, only through shops and wholesalers.

Our ice cream is sold under the name 3 Vänner across Sweden in ICA, COOP, and Hemköp stores. Additionally, you can order our ice cream through Foodora in Sweden. Our ice cream is also available in many cafés, restaurants, Convini-vending maschines and Granngården stores.

Our core values are bold authenticity, unrivaled quality & taste.

Our story began in 2012 when 3 Friends – Heikki, Ilkka, and Sauli – wanted to do something fun together. They bought their first ice cream machine online, and their experiments turned out so good that they decided to start making ice cream. This led to the creation of an ice cream company built on flavor first, using only real ingredients without artificial flavors.

Over the past decade, we have grown into Finland’s most recommended ice cream brand and one of the key domestic producers in the ice cream market. We have expanded to Sweden, where our ice cream is widely available in various chains and channels. We built our own ice cream factory in East Helsinki and expanded our product range beyond tubs to include ice cream sticks and cones. Our team has grown into a diverse and international group. We are incredibly proud of how we have raised the bar and redefined what real ice cream truly is.

We strive to use Finnish and Nordic ingredients whenever possible. All the main ingredients in our cream-based ice creams – milk, cream, eggs, as well as all strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, and red currants – are domestically sourced. The sugar we use is approximately 75% domestic.

All the strawberries, raspberries, and red currants in our ice creams are domestically sourced, and at the moment, cherries are the only berries that come from outside Finland. Unfortunately, there is not enough domestic supply to meet our needs, which is why we source our cherries from Poland.

Finnish berries have been an important part of our ice creams from the very beginning. Currently, all the berries we use are cultivated, and we do not have any ice creams containing wild berries in our selection. However, we look forward to being able to use them again soon.

Our hope is that a solution will soon be found for the berry-picking industry that ensures working conditions that respect human rights. The wild berries from our forests are incredibly flavorful and nutritious, and we want to continue sourcing domestic berries in the future.

Our ice cream does not have any extra air in it, and instead our tubs are full of real, natural ingredients. That is why our ice cream weighs a lot and melts more slowly. A half-litre package contains 400 grams of ice cream. It pays to check how much ice cream a tub really has.

All of our ice cream flavours are gluten-free, albeit not naturally. We use pure, i.e. gluten-free, oats in our cookie sauce. Our glucose syrup comes from Suomen Sokeri, which makes it from wheat and maize, but the producer does not specify which batch is made with which raw ingredient. However, at least 99.998% of the gluten is removed during the production process, making the syrup and, subsequently, all of our products gluten-free, even though they are not naturally so. We select our ingredients carefully and use as many domestic products as possible. Unfortunately though, wheat-free glucose syrup is not available in Finland.

Our selection includes both lactose-free and low-lactose products. Additionally, we have vegan flavours that contain no milk, cream or other animal-derived ingredients. You can recognise the lactose-free ones by the blue markings on the packaging, and the vegan ones by the green.

Aspartame, sucralose, acesulfame K, and other artificial sweeteners are not for us, as we use only natural ingredients.

We make our own chocolate at our ice cream factory. The cocoa that we use in our chocolate has been certified by the NGO Rainforest Alliance. The Paulig coffee used in our Iced Coffee ice cream sticks and Light & Dark Coffee ice cream tubs is also Rainforest Alliance certified. The Rainforest Alliance gets paid for every kilo used, and in turn the NGO supports the farmers who are part of the system. The organisation’s aim is to make sustainable business operations the new normal. The Rainforest Alliance is a certification system for tea, coffee, cocoa and hazelnuts, and, among other things, its focal points include forests, climate change and human rights.

The vanilla that we use comes from Betavilona in Madagascar. We buy it straight from the family Ranja’s organic farms, which have an Organic EcoCert certificate.

Carob bean gum is extracted from the seeds of the carob tree. This fully natural ingredient helps ice cream stay cold for longer. Carob trees grow in Mediterranean countries, such as Greece and Croatia.

Yes, it does. We use glucose syrup, because sugar is one of the main ingredients of ice cream, and it affects the consistency as well as the taste. When used in a suitable ratio to normal sugar, glucose syrup creates a silky smooth consistency and stops the ice cream from melting too quickly. Glucose syrup is as sweet as normal sugar, but 50% more expensive. In other words, we do not use it for the price but for the consistency it gives. Our glucose syrup comes from Suomen Sokeri, and it is made from wheat and maize through a process that is very similar to how normal sugar is made from sugar beet. Glucose syrup is also produced organically and, for example, one third of honey is naturally made up of glucose. However, many consumers confuse glucose syrup with glucose-fructose syrup, which is made artificially by converting glucose into fructose. This is not something that we use in our ice creams.

The chocolate and white chocolate that we use in our ice creams contain a small amount of soy lecithin. All of our other ice cream flavours that do not contain chocolate are soy-free.

These are not for us.

Our ice cream may contain allergen traces, as we only have a single production line. Our ice cream factory is small, and all the products are made at the same facility in Helsinki’s Kivikko. According to legislation on foodstuffs, product labels must mention any traces of common allergens (in our products, these include milk, nuts and peanut). Our vegan ice creams are made on a different day than our dairy ones, and all the machines, containers and equipment are washed between the batches very carefully. Any remaining traces do not make a product non-vegan, and instead the label markings are particularly for those with severe allergies. If any changes are made to the product information, the sales packaging will always contain an updated version.

The coconut cream that we use in our vegan ice creams is from Indonesia, and it has a certification which ensures that no rain forest or tropical forests have been cut down to expand the land used to grow coconuts and that the land area has remained the same since 1988. In addition to that, the certificate proves that no leashed monkeys have been used to pick the coconuts.

No, they are not. Our products include both traditional dairy ice creams and vegan ice creams. The reason we make vegan ice creams is to give everyone a chance to try out plant-based products. However, we make all our flavours according to the same principles – without compromising on the taste.

This marking indicates that no animal-derived ingredients, such as milk, cream or eggs, have been used in the ice cream. Instead, the vegan flavours are made from plant-based ingredients.

We use coconut cream, as well as milk made from almonds, cashews and rice, in our ice creams. So far, we have been unable to make a sufficiently rich ice cream from oats, but we are working on it.

In 2022, we developed and approved a sustainability program that outlines our goals and actions for improving our sustainability efforts. Our goal is to be the most responsible ice cream company in the Nordic countries. Our sustainability program is built around four key themes: 1) A thriving work community, 2) Responsible ingredients, 3) Resource-efficient ice cream production and 4) Ice cream that spreads joy. In the spring of 2025, we will complete our first carbon footprint calculation.

Our first and foremost responsibility is to make food items that are safe for you. When selecting our ingredients, we always check whether we can find them in Finland, the neighbouring countries or Europe. Of course, we cannot get all the exotic spices and nuts locally, but we will change for Finnish options if any become available. Other considerations when sourcing our ingredients include supply security, quality consistency and year-round availability. This allows us to guarantee the best possible end products. If an ingredient comes from further away, we check whether the supplier holds certificates on product safety, production ethics and the environmental aspects. We also prefer to have a direct contact with our ingredient suppliers.

All of our ice creams are made with renewable energy at our own factory. During the summer season, we manufacture around a thousand tubs of ice cream a day by using solar power generated by solar panels we installed on our factory roof in summer 2021. In addition to that, we use EKOenergy, which has been certified by the Finnish Association for Nature Conservation and includes solar power and other renewable forms of energy.

We capture the heat generated from cooling down our large-scale freezers and use it to heat our factory. On top of that, we use Helen’s recycled heat, which comes from the waste heat of other industrial processes.

Our cardboard ice cream tubs are recyclable as liquid packaging board. Rinse out the container lightly, squeeze it flat and return it to a collection bin meant for liquid packaging board. The plastic wrappings of the cones and sticks are 100% recyclable, as long as you remember to put them in a plastic recycling bin.

Our ice cream sticks and cones are wrapped in plastic packaging, because this material is best able to protect our ice creams from temperature and humidity variation, and a long shelf-life in turn reduces food waste. Originally, we would have preferred to use paper wrappings for our individual ice creams, but they also come with a plastic coating. These multi-material packages must go to mixed waste and do not get recycled, whereas plastic on its own can be reused.

Our ice cream factory holds a FSSC 22000 quality certificate, which ensures our product safety.

We want to ensure that everyone feels comfortable and safe at work. Our goal is to enhance workplace well-being and increase appreciation for every individual's work. Diversity is a strength in our work community, and we respect it. We also want to ensure that roles within our team are clear.

Our goal is for an increasing share of our ingredients to be verifiably responsibly sourced. That’s why we have defined the key selection criteria for our ingredients from a sustainability perspective.

In resource-efficient ice cream production, we strive to minimize the environmental footprint of our manufacturing process. Since we handle all raw materials ourselves in our ice cream factory, produce our ice cream from scratch, as well as package and freeze it in-house, we have significant control over our production footprint. We want our products to be genuinely sustainably made.

We want our ice cream to be a responsible choice, so you can indulge with confidence. Our goal is to communicate the sustainability of our ice cream and production through product labeling and sustainability messaging. We strive to be the responsible choice from the perspective of both our stakeholders and target audiences.

Absolutely, you are most welcome to start selling 3 Friends ice cream! You can find our products at the Kespro, Aimo and Wihuri wholesale shops. Alternatively, you can contact our Sales Director Tomi Paavola, tel. +358 (0)50 529 2790.

One of our partners is in charge of catering provided at private and business events. You can request a quote via our site "Contact"

We are happy to receive all kinds of feedback and suggestions for new flavours. Please submit your feedback here.

We use Finnish pasteurised milk and cream, as well as Finnish eggs, in our ice cream. The ice cream mixes are also pasteurised before freezing, which makes them safe to enjoy during pregnancy as well. However, the recommended flavours to avoid include liquorice, due to the naturally occurring glycyrrhizin in liquorice root, and coffee, which contains caffeine. The Finnish Food Authority, therefore, requires the label to state that the product is not recommended for those who are pregnant or suffer from caffeine sensitivity. The amount of caffeine in a large half-litre ice cream tub equals roughly two cups of coffee, while the amount in an Iced Coffee stick equals one third of a cup.

If you cannot find your favourite flavour in the shops anymore, you should first talk to the shopkeeper. They might not know that there is demand for the product in the shop, so it pays to ask. It might also be that we have put a flavour on a break to make room for new ones. However, we never throw away a good recipe, and a flavour may return one day, either as it was or as an updated version, to bring joy to both you and us.

We announce all of our vacant positions on our website and via social media. We are always keen on making new friends, so if there are no vacancies just now, you can send us an open application to hakemukset@3kaveria.fi.

We receive a huge number of well-founded requests for sponsorships and would love to support each and every one. However, because we are unable to respond to every request equally, we are not currently offering any sponsorships, but we do carry out one-off campaigns and hold fun social media competitions.