Häagen-Dazs

Häagen-Dazs is a brand of ice cream, established by Jewish-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, New York, on November 15, 1976. The business grew, and created franchises throughout the United States and many other countries around the world. Häagen-Dazs produces ice cream, ice cream bars, ice cream cakes, sorbet and frozen yogurt. Häagen-Dazs products in the US are distributed by Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream, Inc.

The name Häagen-Dazs does not derive from any of the North Germanic languages; it is simply two made-up words meant to look Scandinavian to American eyes (despite the fact that the digraphs "äa" and "zs" are not part of any native words in any of the Scandinavian languages). This practice is known in the marketing industry as foreign branding. Mattus thought that Denmark was known for its dairy products and had a positive image in the U.S. He included an outline map of Denmark on early labels, as well as the name ofCopenhagen.

Daughter Doris Hurley reported in the PBS documentary An Ice Cream Show (1999) that her father Reuben Mattus sat at the kitchen table for hours saying nonsensical words until he came up with a combination he liked. The reason he chose this method was so that the name would be unique and original.

The playful spelling devices in the name evoke the spelling systems used in several European countries. Another example of this branding is the renaming of the Teatro Calderónin Madrid, Spain, to Teätro Häagen-Dazs Calderón.

Double vowels are common in Dutch, but the use of the umlaut is not common in that context. The umlaut in the title would suggest an A sound like that in "cat". The word "haagen" would roughly translate to "Of The Hague". The word "Dazs" cannot be translated, and the "zs" combination is only found in Hungarian.

In 1980, Häagen-Dazs unsuccessfully sued Frusen Glädjé, an ice cream maker, whose name without the acute accent is Swedish for "frozen delight".

Häagen-Dazs was bought by Pillsbury in 1983. General Mills bought Pillsbury in 2001. However, in the United States and Canada, Häagen-Dazs products are produced by Nestlésubsidiary Dreyer's, which acquired the rights as part of the General Mills-Pillsbury deal.^[ The brand name is still owned by General Mills but is licensed to Nestlé in the US and Canada.

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). In response, Ben & Jerry's said that they would not be changing the sizes of their cartons.