Häagen-Dazs

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A Häagen-Dazs shop in Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada
A Häagen-Dazs shop in Fashion Show Mall on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada
A Häagen-Dazs shop in IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong
A Häagen-Dazs shop in IFC Mall, Central, Hong Kong

Häagen-Dazs [ˈha:gənˌdas] is an American brand of ice cream made by Nestlé, established by Reuben and Rose Mattus in The Bronx, New York in 1959. Starting off with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate, and coffee the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn NY in 1975 and then offered franchises throughout the United States and 54 other countries around the world. Häagen-Dazs produces ice cream, ice cream bars, sorbet, and frozen yogurt.

Contents

[edit] Overview

The ice cream comes in many different flavors and is a so-called "super-premium" brand, meaning it uses the highest quality ingredients and is quite dense (very little air is mixed in during manufacture) and no emulsifiers or stabilizers are used other than egg yolks, and has a high butterfat content. Häagen-Dazs is also meant to be kept at a temperature that is substantially lower than most ice creams in order to keep its intended firmness. It is sold both in grocery stores and in dedicated retail outlets serving ice cream cones, sundaes, and so on.

A majority of the permanent flavors offered by the company include chocolate in one form or another, though there are vanilla-based blends as well. Three to four times a year a seasonal limited edition flavor is introduced.

In 1974 Haagen Dazs established a national presence with an agreement with the California dairy Arden Farms to manufacture and distibute the ice cream in the Western states.

In 1975 the first company store was opened in Brooklyn NY by the Mattus' daughter Doris and soon became a national franchise.

In 1978, outgrowing its original Bronx production facilty, the company purchased a larger factory in Woodbridge New Jersey.

Häagen-Dazs was sold to The Pillsbury Company, now owned by General Mills, in 1983. In the USA and Canada, the brand is used under license by Nestlé. Following this purchase Haagen Dazs built an additional faciltiy in Tulare, California.

In the 1980s, Häagen-Dazs faced competition from Frusen Glädjé, another brand of premium American ice cream whose name actually was Scandinavian.

In 2008, the company announced the donation of $250,000 to Pennsylvania State University and University of California, Davis to help research the bee colony collapse disorder (CCD) phenomenon. The company will also sell a limited-edition flavor, Vanilla Honey Bee, with part of the proceeds also going to fund research on CCD.[1]

[edit] Name

Contrary to common belief,[citation needed] the name is not Scandinavian; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (In fact, the letter combinations "äa" and "zs" are impossible in all Scandinavian languages). This is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding. Mattus included an outline of Scandinavia on early labels, as well as the names of Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm, to reinforce the Scandinavian theme. The name was created by reversing the name of Dunken Hines, an original potential marketer of the product. When that deal didn't materialize the name was manipulated to sound Scandinavian.

The playful spelling devices in the name invoke the spelling systems used in several European countries. "ä" (an 'a' with an umlaut) is used in the spelling of the German, Estonian, Finnish, Slovak and Swedish languages, doubled vowel letters spell long vowels in Estonian, Finnish, Dutch, and occasionally German; and zs corresponds to /ʒ/ (as in vision) in Hungarian. None of these spelling conventions is used in pronouncing the name of the American product, which has a short a, hard g, and a final s sound. The closest real name to the fake Häagen is Hagen (Danish/Norwegian/German surname, German first name, and German town name). Dazs does not mean anything even in Hungarian despite the "zs" grapheme, does not have any meaning, and sounds too unfamiliar even to be a name. The closest real word in Hungarian is "Darázs", which means wasp.

A further step in branding is the renaming of the Teatro Calderón in Madrid, Spain to Teätro Häagen-Dazs Calderón.[1] There is no ä in the Spanish alphabet.

[edit] List of flavors

[edit] Permanent

Chocolate Decadence, Häagen-Dazs, VivoCity, Singapore
Chocolate Decadence, Häagen-Dazs, VivoCity, Singapore
500ml tub of Häagen Dazs Chocolate Ice Cream
500ml tub of Häagen Dazs Chocolate Ice Cream

[edit] Extras

  • Cookie Dough Dynamo

[edit] Limited edition

  • Green Tea (USA and China) (2008)
  • German Chocolate Cake (2006 and 2007)
  • Strawberry Shortcake (2007)
  • Carrot Cake Passion
  • Cappuccino Commotion
  • Marsala Fig (2006 and 2007)
  • Sweet Potato (Japan only)
  • Chestnut (Japan only)
  • Mango & Passionfruit
  • Caramel Apple Crumble
  • Sticky Toffee Pudding (2007— )
  • Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan (2007— )
  • Eggnog
  • Tres Leches
  • Vanilla Honey Bee (Spring 2008)

[edit] Retired

  • Carob (c. 1983)
  • Honey Vanilla (c. 1989)
  • peanut butter vanilla (c. 1989)
  • Margerita (c. ???)
  • Key Lime and Vanilla (1980s-1990s, included chunks of pineapple)
  • Chocolate-Chocolate Mint (c. ???)

[edit] Reserve

  • Brazilian açaí berry sorbet
  • Amazon valley chocolate
  • Pomegranate chip
  • Hawaiian lehua honey and sweet cream
  • Toasted coconut sesame brittle
  • Pomegranate and dark chocolate bar

[edit] References

  1. ^ The theater page. Retrieved on 13 February 2007

[edit] External links