the scoop on ICE CREAM

Dairy Foods, March, 2001 by Kevin T. Higgins

New flavors and refined production techniques are keeping the outlook for ice cream bright

Move over coffee, make way for custard. In the ice cream flavor parade, eggs 'n ice cream are in, mocha is overdone, and frozen yogurt is definitely passe.

Years before dairy producers started putting bits of candy and chunks of baked goods in their frozen desserts, dip shops were racking up sales with those mix-ins. So when sweet shops start placing orders for custard machines, major manufacturers should take note: Americans living far beyond custard's upper Midwest home base are developing a taste for it.

Trend spotting is risky business with ice cream. As with most mature markets, frozen desserts have settled more into a niche business, with every manufacturer angling for a point of distinction. When coffin freezers become overcrowded with a given variety, the bubble inevitably bursts.

That said, there are noteworthy developments beyond the obvious bull markets for full fat and cobranded ice creams. "Gelato definitely is getting more popular in the United States, although it's happening mostly in the East and on the West Coast," notes consultant Malcolm Stogo, Riverdale, N.Y. The same holds for Italian ices.

"The big brands have more at risk and can't afford to make mistakes," observes Steve Young of the ice cream consulting firm Tharp & Young. "An entrepreneur doesn't know any better and learns the science of ice cream, makes something innovative in his garage in Vermont, and the next thing you know, you've got Ben & Jerry's."

In fact, in the early 1980s a New Age hippie named Ben Cohen padded around the campus in Happy Valley, Pa., rubbing shoulders with other attendees of Penn State's ice cream short Course (see related story). The indulgent, exotic flavors he and partner Jerry Greenfield learned to make were out of step with mainstream manufacturing then, but the ultimate success of Cherry Garcia, Chunky Monkey and other flavors were harbingers of mid-'90s trends. Indulgence continues, as demonstrated by this season's new offerings:

* Good Humor-Breyer's is bringing its Special Edition All Natural line to grocers' freezers. Flavors include Cherry Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Caramel Nut, Banana Fudge Chunk and Mocha Almond Fudge. On the novelties side, Ocean Spray Fruit Juice Bars debut.

* Ice Cream Partners' Haagen-Dazs brand rolls out Chocolate Brownie with Walnuts and German Chocolate Cake varieties. Gelato gets two line extensions (Tirimasu and Honey Almond), and limited editions of stick bars and sorbet will be in stores.

* Double Chocolate Chip, Cookie Dough and Pineapple Upside Down Cake are among the half-dozen full-fat ice cream flavors rolling out from Blue Bell Creameries this year. The dairy had a hit last year with Moo-llennium Crunch in half gallons; now it's available in pints. Those last two flavors reflect the growth of multi-flavored and textured offerings: one features brown sugar pineapple ice cream blended with pineapple chunks, maraschino cherries, vanilla wafer chunks and praline sauce, while the other is a melange of dark chocolate chunks, creamy caramel chunks, roasted pecan halves, chopped almonds and pieces of walnut.

* Friendly Ice Cream Corp. deploys its "triple flavor technology" to deliver eight new varieties of triple suncaes with three flavors per half gallon and loaded with its Ice Cream Shoppe toppings. Flavors include Pistachio Chocodamia Nut, Caramel Chocolate Candy Bar, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup Blast, Butterscotch Pecan Crunch, Cookie Dough Explosion, Mint Chocolate Chip Cookie Crunch, Creamy Mocha Chunk Cafe and Chocolate Covered Berry Patch.

* Stonyfield Farm reformulated its organic ice creams, inching away from low fat and toward super premium. Creme Caramel joins Mocha Biscotti Fudge, Double Chocolate Swirl and six other flavors.

* The largest private label copacker East of the Mississippi River is working with Nestle and others to give its customers the ability to market cobranded ice cream. Dunkirk, N.Y.-based Fieldbrook Farms Co. also has struck a deal with Major League Baseball to market frozen desserts with baseball clubs' names and logos.

Fieldbrook validates mainstream acceptance for a new flavor or concept. Trends may start in a dip shop and reach a national audience through a major dairy, but the cash register has weighed in when grocers begin asking copackers like Fieldbrook to provide a store-brand version.

That puts added pressure on the big producers to keep the pipeline filled with new products. Failure to innovate can destroy a category, which has been the problem with frozen yogurt, suggests Steve Moss, marketing director of Ice Cream Partners USA. "There is an opportunity for a return to vitality (with low-fat yogurt), but it won't happen unless there is innovation," Moss says, "and innovation over the past few years was al most entirely directed at full-fat ice cream."

Taste me, feel me

If innovative flavors are to be successful, they need to be high quality, and the industry has made significant strides in delivering consistent, quality products to grocers' freezers. Now researchers are gaining a better understanding of the dynamics of taste and texture, and new equipment and ingredients are becoming available.