Sunday, July 18, 2010 marks annual National Ice Cream Day in the United States. In 1984 President Ronald Reagan declared July as National Ice Cream Month and chose the third Sunday as the formal celebratory day.
As a part of the ice cream festivities popular ice cream company Baskin Robbins made a big announcement. The company announced on July 15, 2010 they planned to retire five of their signature flavors; this coincides with the company's 65th anniversary so the ice cream giant is celebrating in a big way.
Consumers might wonder why Baskin Robbins would withdraw popular flavors. The company's response basically states times change, trends change and Baskin Robbins retires flavors in order to make room for new kinds of ice cream to be introduced.
The discontinue of these five flavors is the latest of a long line of ice cream retirees. As the company decides to stop production of specified flavors, they are placed in a retirement community known as the "Deep Freeze". On this web page a list of past flavors is preserved along with a nice trip down memory name to commemorate some of the flavors.
You might be wondering why a retiring flavor is such big news if the company has so many already discontinued flavors.
In response to this, Srinivas Kumar, who is the chief brand officer at Baskin Robbins, said "over the decades we have retired some of our iconic flavors into our deep freeze - like 'Miami Ice' from the 1980s and 'Beatlenut' in the 1960s - but never before have five flavors gone into the deep freeze at one time." (CNN.com)
The flavors being retired are Caramel Praline Cheesecake (1970), Campfire S'mores (1975), Apple Pie a La Mode (1976), and Superfudge Truffle (2007). The fifth, and longest lasting retiree, French Vanilla, has been in the Baskin Robbins lineup almost as long as the company has been in existence, having been introduced in 1945.(One can only puzzle why they would drop a popular flavor such as the classic vanilla which has been a staple for so long, but this is the decision made).
Unfortunately ice cream customers will have to wait a bit longer to find out what those tantalizing new flavors will be because the company has been keeping mum until they are ready to unveil their new flavors.Rumor also has it customers may get a vote to determine new members of the Baskin Robbins lineup. In the meantime, the five retired flavors will be available for purchase as long as supplies last.
Ice cream enthusiasts can learn more about the company's plans for their 65th birthday bash on their Facebook page or follow them on Twitter.
For other celebrations of National Ice Cream Day, this blog by Joe Frugal lists a few places where coupons can be printed off.
Many other companies across the U.S. are offering promotions and/or other celebratory events, these are widespread and may be more localized than national. To find out where these are, you might want to check your local papers and inquire with local businesses to see what's going on for National Ice Cream Day. Many are giving away free scoops, discounts or samples; some cities are even having festivals.
Additional Source: PR Newswire