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Häagen-Dazs

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Häagen-Dazs
Company typeSubsidiary
IndustryRetail
FoundedIn 1961 in The Bronx, New York
FounderReuben and Rose Mattus
HeadquartersOakland, California, USA
ProductsIce Cream
ParentGeneral Mills
WebsiteHaagen-Dazs.com
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

Häagen-Dazs (Template:Pron-en) is an American 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.

Overview

The ice cream comes in many different flavors and is a "super-premium" brand, meaning it uses high quality ingredients, 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. 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.

The Häagen-Dazs brand is owned by General Mills.[1] However, in the United States and Canada, Häagen-Dazs products are produced by Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc., a Nestlé subsidiary, under a pre-existing license.[2][3]

Name

Contrary to appearances, 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 a not 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. A name was created by reversing the name of Duncan Hines ("Huncan-Dines"), an original potential marketer of the product. When that deal didn't materialize the name was manipulated to sound Scandinavian.

Häagen-Dazs locations worldwide

The playful spelling devices in the name invoke 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. 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".

A further step in branding is the renaming of the Teatro Calderón in Madrid, Spain to Teätro Häagen-Dazs Calderón.[4] There is no ä in the Spanish alphabet.

In 1980, Häagen-Dazs unsuccessfully sued Frusen Glädjé, an ice cream maker with whose name, in Swedish, means "frozen delight." Häagen-Dazs's complaints included Frusen Glädjé's "Scandinavian marketing theme", "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."[3]

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) to 14 US fl oz (410 ml). Additionally they announced that in March 2009 they would be shrinking the 32 US fl oz (950 ml) container to 28 US fl oz (830 ml). [5] In response, Ben & Jerry's said that they would not be changing the sizes of their cartons.[6]

List of flavors

Permanent

Chocolate Decadence, Häagen-Dazs, VivoCity, Singapore
File:Haagendazschocolate.jpg
500ml tub of Häagen Dazs Chocolate Ice Cream

Five Ingredients

  • Mint
  • Ginger
  • Coffee
  • Vanilla Bean
  • Passion Fruit
  • Brown Sugar
  • Milk Chocolate

Limited edition

  • 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
  • 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)

Retired

  • Boysenberry (c. 1969)
  • Carob (c. 1983)
  • Honey Vanilla (c. 1989, 2008)
  • Peanut Butter Vanilla (c. 1989)
  • Margarita
  • Chocolate chocolate mint
  • Coffee Toffee

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
  • Fleur de sel Caramel
  • Caramelized Hazelnut Gianduja

Ice Cream Bars

  • Chocolate & Dark Chocolate
  • Coffee & Almond Crunch
  • Vanilla & Almonds
  • Vanilla & Dark Chocolate
  • Vanilla & Milk Chocolate

References

  1. ^ General Mills. Retrieved on 08 October 2008
  2. ^ Nestlé takes over Dreyer's. Retrieved on 25 June 2003
  3. ^ Nestlé scoops up Häagen Dazs. Retrieved on 26 December 2001
  4. ^ The theater page. Retrieved on 13 February 2007
  5. ^ [1]
  6. ^ [2]
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