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Häagen-Dazs (pronounced /ˈhɑːɡəndɑːs/) is a brand of ice cream, established by Polish immigrants Reuben and Rose Mattus in the Bronx, New York, in 1961. Starting with only three flavors: vanilla, chocolate and coffee, the company opened its first retail store in Brooklyn, NY in 1976 and then offered franchises throughout the United States and 54 other countries around the world. Häagen-Dazs produces ice cream, ice cream bars, ice cream cakes, sorbet and frozen yogurt.
[edit] Overview
The ice cream comes in many different flavors and is a "super-premium" brand, meaning it is quite dense (very little air is mixed in during manufacture), uses no emulsifiers or stabilizers 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.[citation needed] 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.
Häagen-Dazs was bought by Pillsbury in 1983. General Mills bought Pillsbury in 2001.[1] However, in the United States and Canada, Häagen-Dazs products are produced by Nestlé, under who acquired the rights as part of the General Mills-Pillsbury deal.[2][3]
Häagen-Dazs locations worldwide
The name does not derive from any of the North Germanic languages; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (in fact, the digraphs "äa" and "zs" are not a part of any native words in any of the Scandinavian languages). This is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding. Mattus included an outline map of Scandinavia on early labels, as well as the names of Oslo, Copenhagen and Stockholm, to reinforce the Scandinavian theme. However, to Scandinavians the name doesn't look particularly Scandinavian, and is often presumed to be a German brand.
Daughter Doris Hurley told PBS documentary An Ice Cream Show (1999) that her father Reuben Mattus sat at the kitchen table for hours saying nonsensical words until he came up with a combination he liked. The reason he chose this method, was so that the name would be completely unique and original.[4]
The playful spelling devices in the name evoke the spelling systems used in several European countries. "ä" (an 'a' with an umlaut mark) 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.[citation needed] One close real name to the fake Häagen is the rare Norwegian first name Haagen. It also bears a resemblance to Den Haag, which is "The Hague" in Dutch. Dazs does not mean anything even in Hungarian despite the "zs" grapheme, and sounds too unfamiliar even to be a name. The closest real word in Hungarian is "darázs", which means "wasp".
Another example of this branding is the renaming of the Teatro Calderón in Madrid, Spain, to Teätro Häagen-Dazs Calderón.[5] There is no ä in the Spanish alphabet.
In 1980, Häagen-Dazs unsuccessfully sued Frusen Glädjé, an ice cream maker whose name, in Swedish, means "frozen delight." Häagen-Dazs's complaints included Frusen Glädjé's "Scandinavian marketing theme" (a claim denied under the doctrine of unclean hands), "prominently displayed list of the product's natural ingredients, a list of artificial ingredients not found in the ice cream, directions for serving and eating the ice cream (essentially that it was best served soft), and a map of Scandinavia."[6]
[edit] Carton resizing in the US
To offset increasing costs of their ingredients and the delivery of the product, Häagen Dazs announced that in January 2009 it would be reducing the size of their ice cream cartons in the US from 16 US fl oz (470 ml; 17 imp fl oz) to 14 US fl oz (410 ml; 15 imp fl oz). Additionally they announced that in March 2009 they would be shrinking the 32 US fl oz (950 ml; 33 imp fl oz) container to 28 US fl oz (830 ml; 29 imp fl oz).[7] In response, Ben & Jerry's said that they would not be changing the sizes of their cartons.[8]
[edit] List of flavors
[edit] Permanent
[edit] Five ingredients
- Brown Sugar
- Coffee
- Ginger
- Milk Chocolate
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- Mint
- Passion Fruit
- Vanilla Bean
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[edit] Limited edition
- Bailey's Irish Cream
- Cappuccino Commotion
- Cappuccino Caramel Truffe (2008— )
- Caramel Apple Crumble
- Caramel Biscuit and Cream - Speculoos (2008)
- Caramelized Pear and Toasted Pecan (2007— )
- Carrot Cake Passion
- Chestnut (Japan only)
- Dark Chocolate (2009)
- Eggnog
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- German Chocolate Cake (2006 and 2007)
- Green Tea (US, China and Japan) (2008)
- Mango & Passionfruit
- Marsala Fig (2006 and 2007)
- Raspberry & Merengue (2008— , available in Brazil)
- Sticky Toffee Pudding (2007— )
- Strawberry Shortcake (2007)
- Sweet Potato (Japan only)
- Tres Leches (2004)
- Vanilla Honey Bee (Spring 2008)
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[edit] Retired
- Boysenberry (c. 1969)
- Carob (c. 1983)
- Chocolate chocolate mint
- Coffee Toffee
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- Margarita
- Peanut Butter Vanilla (c. 1989)
- Vanilla Fudge
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[edit] Reserve
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- Hawaiian lehua honey and sweet cream
- Pomegranate and Dark Chocolate Bar
- Pomegranate Chip
- Toasted Coconut Sesame Brittle
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[edit] Ice cream bars
- Chocolate & Dark Chocolate
- Coffee & Almond Crunch
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- Vanilla & Almonds
- Vanilla & Dark Chocolate
- Vanilla & Milk Chocolate
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[edit] References
[edit] External links
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Nestlé |
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Worldwide
with exceptions |
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1 Brand owned by General Mills. 2 Local production rights owned by The Hershey Company. 3 Local rights and specific trade dress owned by Nestlé, but not worldwide.
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