Premium Ice cream bars in the USA

What are the brand names of the premium ice cream bars sold in the USA, what are the retail prices for each brand, and where are they made? (company name, city, state at minimum. Other contact details would be nice, but not necessary) Premium ice cream bars, to help you define them, are not sold on a straight stick like a popsicle. They are sold on a paddle shaped stick. I am not interested in web sites for dairy associations, or web sites for ice cream companies, unless they specifically answer my questions without further inquiry. I would expect all of this information could be quickly gathered on a trip to a corner dairy store, but I don't live in the US. Thanks for your help!!!

Hi diannee -- I see your question still sitting here today, which surprises me given the number of researchers in the US whom I know would jump at the chance to do some firsthand icecream research. I'm wondering if there is a difference between icecream bars in the US and wherever you are. My confusion is over your description of the "paddle" versus the popsicle "stick" - the icecream bars that I'm familiar with either come on a straight popsicle stick OR comes as a bar with no stick at all. The premium brand name the comes to mind is Klondike. The Original Klondike Bar is pictured here, along with all of its newer offspring. GOOD HUMOR-BREYERS - KLONDIKE http://www.icecreamusa.com/klondike/default.asp Another that springs to mind is Ben and Jerry's Peace Pop, pictured here: BEN AND JERRY'S - PEACE POPS http://www.benjerry.com/our_products/flavor_details.cfm?product_id=16 I haven't had one in years, but I don't recall anything unusual about the stick. Are these the kinds of products you are talking about? If so, I'd be happy to look for some more for you. --K~

Dianee - - The great danger of researching this question was in going into a grocery store and NOT coming out with a box of Dove Bars. First, let me explain that I’m in Seattle and that may influence was premium ice cream specialties are available. There are a large number of regional firms, such as Tillamook and Denali, that may not distribute nationwide or may license through other vendors. The Ben and Jerry’s example cited by knowledge_seeker-ga is a good example: the ice cream is available nationwide but I’ve never seen the Peace Pops in Washington State. Other researchers may add some regional concerns of their own but here are three examples: Ben & Jerry’s "Factory Tours" http://www.benjerry.com/our_company/about_us/tours/ Tillamook Cheese Company "Ice Cream" (2001) http://www.tillamookcheese.com/products/icecream.html Denali Flavors http://www.moosetracks.com/flavors.html Stroh’s Ice Cream http://www.melodyfarms.com/IceCream-Strohs.html Business.com has a directory of ice cream manufacturers that would expand the list dramatically and would include ice cream retailers like Baskin-Robbins that have their own premium ice cream bars : Business.com "Ice Cream Manufacturers" (directory: undated) http://www.business.com/directory/food_and_beverage/dairy_producers/ice_cream/ The vendors whose products meet your specifications exactly (with wide paddle sticks) and are distributed nationwide are: Dove Bars, $5.29 for a pack of 4; on sale for $3.99. These can also be purchased in convenience stores singly for $1.89. Manufactured by Masterfoods USA., Burr Ridge, IL. Masterfoods is privately-held company but here is their information page on Dove chocolates: http://www.dovechocolate.com/every.html Haagen-Dazs Bars, $4.19 for a pack of 3; on sale for $2.99. Also available in convenience stores for about the same price. Headquarters for Haagen-Dazs is is Willkes-Barre, PA, but the company is a subsidiary of Nestle Haagen-Daz "Company Directory" http://www.haagen-dazs.com/coudir.do There are a number of premium or specialty bars sold with without a stick (the M&M Mars examples below) or sold with a narrow popsicle-type stick: Nestle Crunch Bars, $3.99 for 6. Klondike Heath Bars, $4.99 for 6 Klondike is a brand of Good Humor-Breyers ice cream, of Green Bay, WI: http://www.icecreamusa.com/gettoknow/default.htm M&M Mars Snicker Ice Cream Bars, $4.99 for 6 M&M Mars Twix Ice Cream Bars, $4.19 for 6 These are produced under license from Mars, Inc. by Masterfoods USA, Burr Ridge, IL. Dreyers Strawberry Fruit Ice Cream bar, $3.79 for 6. Dreyers, in Oakland, CA, is 50% owned by Nestle. Curiously, Dreyers is also the distributor of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, a direct competitor to Nestle’s Haagen Dazs unit: http://www.dreyersinc.com/ Starbuck Mocha Frapuccino Ice Cream Bars, $4.99 for 4 Nestle currently produces all of the Starbucks-branded ice cream products, but is rumored to have the business for sale due to its desire to increase its investment in Dreyers: CNN "Nestle still talking about ice cream" (March 6, 2003) http://money.cnn.com/2003/03/06/news/companies/nestle_ftc.reut/ You can do your own online shopping with many U.S. grocery sites, though you may need to know a zip code for which they’ll deliver. A few examples are: Albertsons www.albertsons.com Safeway http://shop.safeway.com/superstore/ Peapod www.peapod.com Google search strategy: Amble over to the local QFC (a subsidiary of Kroger’s) brand search online groceries + "online shopping" If any part of this is unclear, please let me know before rating the answer. Best regards, Omnivorous-GA

Thanks, Omnivorous! You picked up what I want. You found two premium ice cream bars with paddle sticks, with prices and manufacturing locations. And the on-line grocery shop PeaPod netted one more (one called Silhouette), sold in Chicago. But surely there are more than 3 in the US. I can see that the on-line grocery shopping is a good way to pick them up, if the photos are complete enough to show the paddle sticks. Would you mind trying to find one more? Perhaps an east coast grocery chain would have one we haven't discovered.

Dianee -- The easy part is finding specialty ice cream products. The hard part is knowing which ones have a wide, paddle-like stick. For example, New York City has a popular product called the 'Chipwich' but I don't know if it has ever appeared on a stick -- or if the stick was the wide paddle-type: Chipwich http://www.chipwich.com/index.html Another New York State example, in which it's not clear whether Perry's is simply competing against Dove and Haagen Dazs -- or they have stick-based products: Exxon Chemical "New Packaging for Perry's Ice Cream Sandwiches" http://www.exxonmobilchemical.com/Public_PA/WorldwideEnglish/Newsroom/Newsreleases/chem_nr_110402_3.asp In searching supermarkets, the top 75 list of grocery stores is available from Supermarket News, an industry publication. The list includes convenience stores (gas stations) and their food-related sales: Supermarket News "SN's Top 75" (2002) http://www.supermarketnews.com/sntop75.htm I'm not quite sure how you'd like to have me proceed from here? Best regards, Omnivorous-GA

Dear Omnivorous: From your last response, it would appear that you did not look at any east coast on-line grocery stores, check their ice cream items for sale, and look for ice cream bars sold on paddle sticks. This approach is what I was hoping for - to try to locate one more product before rating the answer. If you did try this, which stores did you try, so I don't duplicate your effort? Thanks! Diane

Dainee -- The major problem is differentiating between offerings on a normal popsicle stick and those on a wide stick. Online presentations of products don't dwell on the stick. Here's where else one can look: Baskin Robbins (4500 retail ice cream specialty stores)http://www.baskinrobbins.com/about/ Though Baskin Robbins doesn't indicate it online, they do have ice cream bars in a freezer case in stores. So too does Dairy Queen, with a product called the 'Dilly Bar' (though I believe that it's a popsicle stick). Dairry Queen has more than 6,000 franchisees in the U.S. and Canada. It is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway is located at: 7505 Metro Boulevard Minneapolis, MN 55439 http://www.idq.com/default.asp?cookie%5Ftest=1 As for grocery outlets, Safeway owns a large number of chains (including Dominick's, a collection of stores in the Chicago area) but is only delivering on the West Coast. Albertson's delivery areas (and the ones for which online ordering is available) match those of Safeway. Stop & Shop is a chain offering home delivery via Peapod (a delivery service). You may wish to register using a New York suburban address to check pricing and availability (Rye, NY is zip code 10580): http://www.stopandshop.com/ In the process of trying to get some other samples, we discovered that -- Roundy's does not offer online shopping: www.roundys.com Marsh Supermarkets (Indiana) offers only limited online shopping: www.marsh.net Meijer's, a Michigan-based chain that sells groceries and hard goods, offers very limited shopping online, mostly with hard goods: www.meijer.com Similarly with Raley's (California, Nevada, New Mexico): http://www.raleys.com/ Byerly's, an upscale Minnesota-based grocer, doesn't offer online shopping either: http://www.byerlys.com/ Winn-Dixie is a major southeastern chain but apparently doesn't offer online shopping: http://www.winn-dixie.com/ The Food Marketing Institute's list of grocery chains with websites. Note that some of these are subsidiaries of larger companies: Food Marketing Institute "FMI Member Websites" http://www.fmi.org/facts_figs/memberlist.htm Best regards, Omnivorous-GA

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5 January 2009 | cameltoepants.com | edit