The Birthplace Of Häagen-Dazs Isn't Where You'd Expect

In the world of premium ice cream, Häagen-Dazs is one of the brands that tend to dominate the conversation. Whether from the frozen section at the grocery store or one of its numerous shops, Häagen-Dazs ice cream is such a classic because of how it's made. While commercial ice creams typically have a butterfat content of 10% to 12%, Häagen-Dazs is made with 15%. It's also free of preservatives and stabilizers and has less air pumped into it, making it denser. These factors combined ultimately translate to better flavor and texture.

Considering how popular Häagen-Dazs has remained throughout the years, it's clear that customers are willing to pay more for a higher quality product. Many people also assume that the higher price point has something to do with the fact that imported foods are generally more expensive. But despite its Scandinavian-sounding name, Häagen-Dazs is as American as Ben & Jerry's and Dairy Queen.

Unlike those companies, however, Häagen-Dazs doesn't call Vermont or Illinois home. Instead, the beloved ice cream company hails from New York City.

Häagen-Dazs is officially stylized with an umlaut, and although this linguistic trait is common in languages like German and Swedish, the name Häagen-Dazs has nothing to do with where it originated. It was made up by Polish-born American and company founder Reuben Mattus in New York circa 1960.

Mattus didn't start Häagen-Dazs from scratch. Technically it was a rebranding of his family's ice cream business that he ended up taking over with his wife Rose. In the 1920s, Mattus' family sold Italian ice and ice cream in Brooklyn and the South Bronx, but struggled to get customers. After researching how to make ice cream properly, Mattus recalled in an interview with Tablet Magazine, "The first thing I told my mother was to fire our ice cream maker." The second thing he did was change the name to Häagen-Dazs. "The only country which saved the Jews during World War II was Denmark, so I put together a totally fictitious Danish name and had it registered," he shared to the outlet. But why did Mattus decide to change the name in the first place?

Having a catchy name is important, but there's another reason why Reuben Mattus specifically came up with one like Häagen-Dazs. His family only started having difficulty selling ice cream when big food producers began mass producing the dessert in New York and selling it for cheap in grocery stores. Mattus therefore concluded that selling his ice cream under a foreign-sounding name was the best way to keep up with the competition. Not only would a unique name make the ice cream stand out from competitors, it would also lead customers to believe that the product was imported.

If it weren't for Americans' fascination with everything European, Mattus' strategy may not have worked as well. During the 1970s and 80s, imported products were all the rage in America, and that included food. Häagen-Dazs came about at a time where the fad was just starting to take off, and combined with a higher quality product, it ultimately propelled the company to success.