Back when Ben Cohen was a kid growing up in Long Island, one of his favorite pastimes was scooping big dollops of ice cream into a bowl, smooshing it up with a spoon, then stirring in chunks of candy. Maybe M&M`s one day, maybe Heath Bars the next.
About the same time, a few states away in Massachusetts, Steve Herrell was busy mixing chunks of chocolatey Oreo cookies into his favorite recipe for super-rich vanilla ice cream.
These kids had found out how to make a great thing better.
These kids grew up and missed the ice cream indulgences of their childhood.
So Steve and Ben, along with his junior high buddy, Jerry Greenfield, decided to recreate their delicious memories, figuring that if they loved stirring chunks of candy or cookies into ice cream, wouldn`t the rest of America?
It appears that ice cream lovers from sea to shining sea agree. The concept of mix-ins is this summer`s hot topic.
Steve`s Ice Cream and Ben & Jerry`s Ice Cream may be ”the kings of the mix-ins,” according to one industry observer, yet most every other ice cream maker across the country also is busy stirring candies, cookies and liqueurs into America`s favorite dessert.
Ice cream shops with stir-ins are so popular, in fact, that Kid Millions, 2808 N. Halsted St., plans to open a second store later this month while the doors just opened on the third Ben & Jerry`s in Chicagoland.
The folks at Steve`s, who trademarked ”mix-ins,” are busy looking for Chicago locations to add to their 100 dipping stores across the country. And the Chicago Ice Cream Studio, 56 E. Chicago Ave., has plans to open a new shop somewhere in the city within the year.
Banking on the popularity of the mix-in concept, Bresler`s offers a similar idea using frozen yogurt and calling it Ice-Quake.
Meanwhile, the situation at local supermarkets reflects the nationwide popularity of mix-ins.
”There`s not enough room in supermarket freezers for all the types of ice creams and novelties,” said Becky Davenport of the Washington, D.C.-based International Ice Cream Association, which has logged 400 flavors.
Cartons of super-premium ice creams embellished with everything from Heath Bars to Oreo cookies are filling up supermarket freezer space long relegated to vanilla, chocolate and strawberry. Joining these pint-size indulgences is a growing number of ice creams swirled with richly-flavored liqueurs including Kahlua, Amaretto and peach schnapps. There`s even a new Jack Daniels-spiked concoction called Tennessee Mud.
Whatever you call it-add-ins or mix-ins or stir-ins-the concept is targeted to appeal to the adult and the child in each of us.
Choices at dipping stores, in fact, sound like a sweet blast from an American child`s past: Heath Bars, M&M`s, Reese`s Peanut Butter Cups, Raisinettes, Butterfinger, Goobers, Junior Mints, Snickers, malted milk balls, Twix, KitKat, Mounds Bars, Three Musketeers, Nestle`s Crunch, and cookies such as Oreo, chocolate chip, gingersnaps, Mystic Mint and oatmeal.
”Ice cream is in itself a treat and mix-ins make it a double treat,”
said David Lasky, president of the Bresler`s division of Oberweis Dairy Inc. of Aurora. ”A lot of adults like to put on their kids` hats when it comes to ordering mix-ins.”
”The joy of the mix-ins is that a customer can custom-make any fantasy flavor his heart desires,” said Mark Levy of Kid Millions, where they`ve been hand-mixing ingredients into their homemade ice cream for two years.
”I sometimes can`t believe the combinations people choose,” said Joanne Clark of Main Sweet USA in Libertyville, ”but our turtle ice cream mixed with M&Ms or vanilla ice cream mixed with M&M`s and Nestle`s Crunch are really popular.”
People are so passionate about mix-ins that the folks at Great Midwestern Ice Cream Co. never let the Iowa City branch run out of Cookies and Cream, a creation made with Oreo cookies. ”We have riots,” said company president Harris Kaplan.
Whether the sweet additions are candies, cookies or liqueurs, basically two types of stir-ins are available: Ice cream with extras incorporated during processing and ice cream that has ingredients mixed in at the dipping store.
The idea of adding goodies to plain-flavored ice creams is not new. Manufacturers have been stirring chocolate chips and pecans into ice cream for years, satisfying an American appetite for ice cream that topped 929 million gallons last year.
”We have always had mix-ins,” said Marilyn Novak of the 43-year-old Baskin-Robbins USA Co., which has been putting bubble gum into ice cream every summer since 1970.
”In 1966, they put chunks of brownies and nuts in the ice cream and called it fudge brownie. When they introduced ice cream with Oreos in 1980 they called it `That`s the Way the Cookie Crumbles`; now it`s called Oreo and Cream. And this month, we`re featuring an oatmeal cookie flavor.”
Several things make today`s mix-ins different from the butter pecan and chocolate chip ice creams of the past. Brand-name candies and cookies are often used. At dipping stores you can create your own flavor. And most of the latest stir-ins begin with super-premium ice cream.
The ice cream industry and U.S. government classify ice creams by several factors, including butterfat content and the quality of ingredients. Super premiums have a 14 to 16 percent butterfat content and usually use all natural ingredients, according to the Ice Cream Association. Premium ice creams can have a 12 to 14 percent butterfat content. According to Novak, most ice creams at Baskin-Robbins have 12 percent butterfat.
Super-premiums, which showed up in 1980, are leading the growth of packaged ice cream sales in supermarkets, where about 60 percent of ice cream sales occur, according to the International Ice Cream Association.
”Consumers have come to appreciate quality,” said Beth Bonner at Haagen-Daz, pioneers in the super-premium field. ”They want high quality and a quality taste sensation.”
”There has been tremendous growth in the super-premium side of the business,” said Jerry Dryer, editor of the Chicago-based Dairy Foods Magazine. ”People have money to spend on the more expensive product and they are treating themselves.”
And this summer`s mix-in mania is cashing in on that.
”Mix-ins started as an ice cream shop trend as a marketing idea,”
Davenport said. ”It gave customers the opportunity to pick a flavor and extend its eating with whatever flavor they want. Responding to the popularity of mix-ins at the ice cream-shop level, producers started making packaged ice cream with stir-ins. The idea was to market ice cream to adults.”
(Adult customers so outnumber the kids at Kid Millions that the shop stays open until 1 a.m. Sunday.)
Ice creams swirled with liqueurs is a mix-in concept targeted at adults.
Said Bresler`s Lasky, ”Our Royal Cremes line has enabled us to satisfy a demand for more sophisticated ice cream taste.” Bresler`s Fuzzy Navel (peach schnapps with manadarin orange sauce) is the most popular of the four Royal Cremes available at its 300 shops, but Lasky sees a bright future in its newest, Bananas Foster.
At Steve`s Ice Cream, they`ve got Cafe Amaretto (coffee ice cream with Amaretto). Baskin-Robbins` International Creams, made with 16 percent butterfat ice cream, include Grand Marnier and chocolate brandied cherry versions. Ben & Jerry`s has a creation called a White Russian and that chocolate-Jack Daniels pair-up called Tennessee Mud. Great Midwestern boasts a plum brandy ice cream, a champagne sorbet and a creation done with Irish Cream called Cedar Rapture.
The fact is, with prices averaging $2.30 a pint at the supermarket or $2.50 and up for a single serving and single ingredient addition, these stir- in ice creams are definitely a sweet investment geared to adult pocketbooks and not the piggy-bank budgets of children.
How does such a calorie-laden creation ring up sales in the land of diet soda and health clubs?
”At 9 o`clock at night, after people have been counting calories all day, they say, `I still can have 300 calories. I am going to treat myself because I`ve been good all day,` ” Dryer said. ”Compared with other treats- new cars, theater tickets-people can treat themselves for relatively little money and get instant gratification.
”And people like Ben & Jerry`s and Great Midwestern Ice Cream have made the ice cream business much more of a circus than it has always been,” Dryer said, citing Ben & Jerry`s latest banana-chocolate chunk ice cream called Chunky Monkey.
”I`m an ice cream lover,” said Cohen, who followed his passion for the cool dessert to a job driving ice cream trucks before he and pal Greenfield began their business in May, 1978. Of the 11 flavors in the line, eight feature chunks, which Cohen credits with their popularity. ”It`s not so much the brand name, it`s the incredibly large amount of very large chunks,” he said. ”Those eight flavors account for 80 to 90 percent of our sales.”
”We`re always working on new flavors,” said Howard Englander of Steve`s, ”and always talking to candy companies to come up with the next Heath Bar crunch.”
