When he and his wife, Rose, launched their own business they created a high-butterfat, low overrun ice cream made with cream and egg yolks rather than the dried milk solids.
Mattus mixed very little air into his cream, and to give it a rich taste it was made with high butterfat content.
In 1961, his wife came up with name Häagen-Dazs and brand. He packed it in pin-sized round containers, not large bricks and designed it carefully to satiny nostalgia and fastidious taste.
He decided to use only natural ingredients. There are no additives, emulsifies or stabilizers. It melts; deteriorates of its not kept frozen solid.
He just made three flavors, vanilla, chocolate and coffee that he sold to small shops in Manhattan. Since Mattus thought it sounded vaguely Danish, he put a map of Scandinavia on the package. By the early 1970s, Häagen-Dazs was being distributed in supermarkets throughout the country.
Mattus started small, and jealously guarded the ‘family business’ image. The firm prospered and spawned imitators.
In 1983 Pillsbury Company buys Häagen-Dazs. The company introduced an ice-cream bar in 1986, frozen yoghurt in 1991 and sorbet in 1993.
In 2001 Nestlé owns 100 percent of Häagen-Dazs.
History of Häagen-Dazs
