11 Things You Should Know Before Buying Breyers Ice Cream
It's cornered the market on this one particular flavor.
Unless you grew up in a household that expressly forbade ice cream and happiness in all forms, you're probably familiar with Breyers. After all, the brand—served in its signature black box—has been around since 1866. In honor of its 150th anniversary, here are some surprising things you probably don't know about the brand—even if you've been eating it since you could fit in the seat of a grocery cart.
Go Ahead, Call Them Vanilla.
It's the brand's best-selling flavor, and it's the leading vanilla brand in North America, according to Kevin Havelock, president of Unilever's refreshment division, which owns Breyers. (The company actually lists not one but four signature vanilla varieties.)
They're Into High-Profile Relationships.
While celebs like Katie Holmes, Kelly Rowland and Olivia Munn have been spotted eating Breyers, that's not what we're talking about. The brand's really into partnering with other major brands on collaboration flavors, like Girl Scouts Samoa, Mrs. Fields Chocolate Chunk Cookie Dough, and Oreo Cookies & Cream.
Certain Flavors Have a Cult Following.
Breyers doesn't bring back limited edition flavors very often—"we're more about 'what can we do that's new?'" Havelock explains—but it has made two notable exceptions: Peppermint Cookie and Summer Berry Cobbler. Both seasonal flavors were intended to be one-offs, but people went so crazy for them they decided to bring them back the following year.
They're Insta-Stalking You.
Sort of. Breyers pays close attention to food trends, particularly what people are posting on Instagram, and what their eating and snacking habits are like. Once a trend—say, salted caramel—starts to become mainstream, that's when they'll release it as a flavor in their lineup, though they may be aware of it for 4 to 5 years before creating their own take on it. "It's all about knowing the right time to release something [to appeal to a wide audience]," Havelock says.
Recently, employees noticed people talking about portion control, which inspired the brand's new 3-ounce cups of ice cream.
Employees Get One Serious Perk.
Some offices have coffee machines, others have gurgling water coolers—Breyers one-ups them all, offering free ice cream (and tea) to employees. "We have about four or five freezers that are filled with ice cream, and we give away coupons so people can share products with their families," Havelock says. "It's a way to get people to interact and connect during the work day."
They also have a gym at their corporate headquarters, in case you're curious.
Your Great Great Grandma Probably Ate the Same Ice Cream.
At 150 years old, Breyers is the oldest nationally available ice cream company in the U.S., and to this day, the brand uses many of the same ingredients that it used when it launched in 1866. (Bassetts, a family-owned ice cream company in Philadelphia, PA, gets the title of oldest ice cream brand in the States overall, edging out the black-boxed brand by five years.)
They're Taking Cues from Italy.
Realizing that people have been craving multiple textures and flavors in an ice cream—essentially cramming an entire sundae, sauces and all, into each carton— Breyers launched its Gelato Indulgences line. It's a riff on the Italian classic, and in three years, it's soared to $100 million in retail sales, Havelock says, making it a huge hit for the company.
Breyers Went Meta with Its Newest Flavor.
To celebrate its 150th, the brand created a special flavor that's essentially a deconstructed version of a classic ice cream parlor cake, complete with crunchy chocolatey bits.
They Sold Ice Cream on the Road Long Before Ice Cream Trucks Were a Thing.
William Breyer got his start selling hand-cranked ice cream right out of his own home, but in the early 1880s, when he opened his first retail store, he started delivering cartons on a horse and buggy.
Don't Confuse It with Dreyer's
Though the names are similar—and occasionally, people ask us whether one is a typo for the other—Dreyer's and Breyers are two totally different ice cream companies.
They Know They Have 7 Seconds to Grab You.
The average person spends basically the length of a Vine staring at the freezer aisle's shelves before making a decision, Havelock says, which means every brand has to really focus on standing out from the crowd. For Breyer's, that means going with classic black, and the brand's name big and bold. "That black background is recognizable, and the name is a stamp of authority," he says. "Those two things and the pledge of purity [that the brand will use natural flavors and coloring, as well as American, growth-hormone-free dairy] are very important to us to convey."
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