The temperature in Mumbai has been erratic & I’ve been enjoying a few ice creams on the hot & humid days. The other day I popped into the nearby Baskin Robbins shop to try their Paan flavoured ice cream, which sent me down memory lane. Do you remember when the company 1stentered India in 1993 & customers were allowed to sample ice cream flavours using their iconic pink spoons before choosing which one to buy? That was pure heaven for a kid.
Anyway, Baskin Robbins celebrates 71 years this month & so today’s GK Nugget is about one of the world’s largest chain of ice cream stores (over 2,800 in the US & 5,800 around the world).
The company was formed by brothers-in-law Burton Baskin& Irvine Robbins merging their respective ice cream parlors, in Glendale, California, USA. Burton’s Ice Cream Shop (opened in 1945) and Snowbird Ice Cream (opened in 1946) (owned by Irvine Robbins) merged in 1953 to form Baskin Robbins.
The brothers-in-law flipped a coin to see whose name would come first in the company.
The logo has the number 31 embedded into it to represent the idea that a customer can have a different flavour every day of the month. The company has introduced more than 1,000 flavours since 1945, but their top selling flavours are basic ones :- vanilla, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, pralines and cream, and chocolate chip.
In the late 1940s they pioneered the franchisee model for their stores, which has been widely adopted by the food & beverage industry globally. Even today, all the stores are franchised with the store operator owning a stake in the business’ success.
Some of the special occasion flavours created by the company – Beatle Nut for when the Beatles 1st toured the US in 1964, 0031 Secret Bonded during the James Bond craze & Lunar Cheesecake (because the moon was believed to be made out of cheese) for the 1969 moon landing.
Among the flavours that were tested but never mass-produced: Ketchup, Grape Britain, and Lox and Bagels.
Barack Obama & Julia Roberts are 2 of the celebrities that have worked at Baskin Robbins ice cream stores. Barack & Michelle Obama experienced both their first date and their first kiss at a store in Chicago – (which has since been commemorated with a historical plaque).
Baskin Robbins holds the world record for the world’s largest ice cream scoop pyramid (3100 scoops – set on May 18th, 2000)and the most ice cream cones scooped in one minute (19).
Baskin Robbins came to India in 1993 & opened its 1stmanufacturing plant outside of the US in Pune. It has over 300 outlets in 61 cities.
In line with the “31” number, Baskin Robbins offers a 31% discount on the 31st of every month (so every January, March, May, July, August, October & December)
Let’s hope they start making some more wacky flavours for Indian milestones soon.
That’s all on this weekend’s GK nugget.
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