Let’s dip into some ice-cold facts with the Top 10 Untold Truths of Dippin’ Dots!
If you’ve been to a movie theatre or an amusement park, then you’re probably familiar
with these well-rounded little ice cream treats.
They Were Created By A Microbiologist The ice cream we know today dates back to
the mid-1800s. So, by the time Curt Jones, the founder of Dippin’ Dots, got around
to playing with this dessert in 1988, it’d been around for a long time. The Dippin’
Dots company had humble beginnings - Curt was a microbiologist working out of his parent’s
garage, trying to figure out how to quick-freeze yogurt bacteria in order to use it in cow
feed. During his work, he got the idea of using the process on ice cream, and a year
later, Dippin’ Dots were born. He created the confection by flash freezing an ice cream
mix in liquid nitrogen. Where did he get his inspiration? Well, Jones grew up on a farm,
and as a child, he used to make a lot of homemade ice cream. He’s stated that while working
with the yogurt bacteria, he found it fun to play with the little balls that would form.
A month or two later, he was making ice cream for a neighbor, when the idea struck him:
there’s a way to freeze this faster. He employed the same knowledge that’d he’d
been using in his work and wham bam, a new icy snack was born.
Cryogenically Frozen Dots Just like Fry in Futurama or Walt Disney’s
head (allegedly), your Dippin’ Dots are also cryogenically frozen! The Dippin’ Dots
website says that the process by which our beloved Dippin’ Dots are made is the direct
result of Curt Jones’ ‘knowledge of cryogenic technology’. What this means is that the
ice cream mix - made up of ice crystals, fat (the milk), sweeteners, air, and non-fat milk
solids - is encapsulated in a liquid nitrogen cool tank, which is 320 degrees below zero.
It’s so cold in the tank that the ice cream mix gets flash-frozen into tiny beads. In
fact, it takes less than a second to freeze one single Dippin’ Dot. While this entire
process sounds like something straight out of Back to the Future, it’s actually not
as complicated as it seems! All you really need is some ice cream mix and some liquid
nitrogen, which is surprisingly easier to acquire than you might think. There’s even
a bunch of recipes on the internet on how to make your very own Dippin’ Dots, though
in much smaller portions than Curt Jones’ factories, of course.
Why You Can’t Find Them At Your Local Grocer Have you ever noticed that the only place
you can get Dippin’ Dots is from a Dippin’ Dots branded freezer? Why can't you just buy
them at your regular grocery store like regular ice cream? Well, in order to keep these dots
in shape, they’ve got to stay extra cold. Like, really cold. Forty degrees below zero,
to be exact. To put this into perspective, at negative forty degrees, your tears would
freeze directly onto your face, and your nose, chin, and eyelashes would become white due
to the snowflake-like frost. In other words, only a Yeti would be able to deal with these
temperatures. Well, Yetis and Dippin’ Dots. As you can probably guess, the freezer in
your local grocery store doesn’t get that cold, and if you tried to store Dippin’
Dots inside one of these, they would lose their iconic shape. So, until the scientists
over at the Dippin’ Dots factories find a way to make these delicious orbs of happiness
able to withstand a little bit more heat, the only way you’ll be able to get your
hands on these are at amusement parks, movie theaters, or by ordering online (they get
delivered packed in dry ice, but you need to eat them almost immediately before they
start melting into formless globs of ice cream.)
There’s A Dippin’ Dots Personality Quiz Do you ever have trouble deciding which flavor
of Dippin’ Dots you should get? Ever think that there are way too many flavors to choose
from, and all those choices are driving you insane? Well, fear not anymore! Choosing a
new flavor is a daunting task indeed, and no easy feat. But luckily, the good people
at Dippin’ Dots thought of the perfect way to help you find the exact flavor that fits
your personality, with a personality quiz! This short-but-fun seven-question quiz asks
you questions like what you would do if you saw your crush at the mall, if you were stuck
in a game of dodgeball, and if your phone’s battery ran out in the middle of an important
text. Obviously, it's directed more toward a younger audience, but you know what, who
cares? Don’t you deserve to know which Dippin’ Dots flavor matches your personality
the best? Why should the young people have all the fun? If you’re curious, it’s easy
enough to find on the web, and the answer you get might surprise you! Whether you get
strawberry, chocolate, vanilla, or any other flavor on the wide spectrum of options, know
that you will always be accepted by the Dippin’ Dots community (and yes, such a community
exists! They even have a mailing list!)
They Tried (and Failed) To Sue A Competitor While they might be the "ice cream of the
future," Dippin’ Dots isn't the only company that wants to make it big in the circular
ice cream business. In fact, because of how simple the process of making Dippin’ Dots
is, other companies have started producing extremely similar products. This all came
to a head in 1996, when the famous Dippin’ Dots brought a lawsuit against a competitor
for patent infringement. It gets a lot juicier - the company, Mini Melts, was started by
brothers who’d previously worked with Dippin’ Dots! The brothers were previously distributors
for Dippin’ Dots, so you can see why Dippin’ Dots was so mad that they’d gone off and
started their very own futuristic ice cream dots company. In 2007, the U.S Patent and
Trademark Office ruled against Dippin’ Dots, saying that they hadn’t acquired their patent
properly. In other words, they lost their lawsuit as well as the patent on their product.
Why? The judge deemed the ice cream recipe was obvious, rather than something proprietary.
This was a huge loss for the company and one of the things that led them to file for bankruptcy
all the way back in 2011. While Mini Melts is still a major competitor for our beloved
Dippin’ Dots, it seems as though both have managed to stay kicking a little while longer.
Dippin’ Dots World Record In 2014, Dippin’s Dots set a Guinness World
Record for the most ice cream cups prepared in three minutes. On July 4th, a five-person
Dippin’ Dots team came together to make that summer memorable for everyone. They prepared
473 cups of Dippin’ Dots in three minutes exactly! The record was set at the Let Freedom
Sing! event in downtown Nashville’s Music City on Independence day. It was also a chance
for the company to celebrate the 30th anniversary of National Ice Cream month (which, let's
be honest, should be a national holiday). And, hey, remember Curt Jones, the founder
of Dippin’ Dots? Well, he was also part of the team! He stated in an interview that
being at the world record was a fun and unique way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of National
Ice Cream Month and that he was thrilled the team had successfully completed the challenge.
In conjunction with the record attempt, Dippin’ Dots donated 400 servings of ice cream to
the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. We’re sure that the children
at Monroe Carell Jr.’s appreciated the sweet treats as much as anyone! This good deed,
paired with the fact that the company also contributes to the charity Give Kids the World
Village in Kissimmee, Florida, really helps cement one thing: Dippin’ Dots likes doing
good.
They were In A One-Sided Twitter Feud Former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer
has an undeniable resentment for these tiny treats, and here's why. This one-sided feud
started way before he became Press Secretary - the first Tweet is dated all the way back
to 2010 - but it garnered some new attention in 2017 after his first media briefing. Some
of Spicer’s harsh tweets included things such as “Dippin’ Dots is not the ice cream
of the future.” These words were the topics of national headlines all throughout the week
of his briefing. For some reason, Spicer had beef with these lovable treats. Now, Internet
humor being what it is, a website was created where you to send a box of Dippin’ Dots
to Sean Spicer - all with one click (and for the low, low price of only $6 dollars). This
website was put up literally only to get on Spicer's nerves, which, you've got to admit,
is kinda funny. Though his insults were pretty harsh, once Dippin’ Dots heard of his tweets,
they approached him with grace. They wrote an open letter to the press secretary on their
website, inviting him to ‘connect the dots’, so to speak. In the letter, they stated that
they understand that ice cream is a serious matter, but that they would rather be friends
than foes. Dippin’ Dots suggested doing something like an ice cream social at the
White House, and when Sean Spicer responded, he instead said that he wanted to do something
for those who have served the nation, as well as first responders. After their open letter,
Dippin’ Dots sales went up. Well, it’s true what they say: ice cream really helps
bring everyone together.
They’re Branching Out While you may still love and appreciate the
classic circular Dippin’ Dots, the company has been slowly branching out and mixing up
their menu a little. In an attempt to bring a fresh feel to the company, they’ve introduced
some brand new products! You have the original dots, you know, like strawberry, chocolate,
vanilla, and so on. But did you know there are around thirty flavors? Some of these curious
new flavors include cotton candy, birthday cake, sour-blue razz, unicorn magic, etc,
etc. On top of that, they’ve also released Dot Treats, which include things like Dot
Sundaes, Dot Shakes, and Dot Quakes. But wait! There’s more! Besides the ice cream-themed
snacks, they’ve also released their own type of popping candies - Rockin’ Cherry
Ice, as well as Frozeti Confetti. They even have dairy-free dots! Now that's good news
for the lactose intolerant among us! With over 90 billion Dots consumed annually across
fourteen different countries, who knows what we’ll see next. It can only get better from
here on out, right?
The Company Filed For Bankruptcy Protection It’s true, back in 2011, the self-proclaimed
Ice Cream of the Future had to file for Chapter 11 federal bankruptcy protection in an attempt
to stave off foreclosure on more than $11 million dollars in loans. According to a statement
from the company, the bankruptcy was the result of the company’s failure to reach an agreement
with its secured lender Regions Financial, following several attempts to do so. In other
words, Dippin’ Dots owed Region around $10 million dollars. But wait! There’s even
more debt! The company also had $12 million dollars worth of liabilities, owed to other
lenders and suppliers. However, Curt Jones assured the public that Dippin’ Dots would
keep being made. A year later, Oklahoma businessman Scott Fischer purchased the company for a
whopping $12.7 million dollars , ensuring that Dippin’ Dots would live to fight another
day. At the time, Fischer stated that he was committed to making sure Dippin’ Dots reclaimed
its status - not as a novelty of the past, but as the ice cream of the future. Why did
he buy the company? Well, in an interview, he revealed that Dippin’ Dots were a part
of his own childhood. He said the first time he’d eaten them - at Six Flags - he’d
never tasted anything quite like it, and that he was hooked after the first bite. As he
grew into adulthood, he began to appreciate them not only for the taste but also for their
innovative character and unique status as a culinary invention.
Dippin’ Dots Dippin' To Good Deeds Dippin’ Dots sponsored the Celebrity Grand
Slam Paddle Jam table tennis tournament in Hollywood, whose proceeds benefit St. Jude
Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee. This was back in 2007, and it was basically
a ginormous table tennis tournament, but with a celebrity twist. The celebrities, who included
people like Brittany Snow, and Gunnar Peterson (as well as a slew of others). All competed
for the Grand Prize, admission to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving
in Phoenix, AZ for the ultimate 2-day full-throttle driving experience in a Z06 Corvette, a one-night
luxury stay at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa, one year of DIRECTV, a Gift
Certificate to Bin 8945 Wine Bistro, and a magnum of Legends Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
from Cosentino Winery of Sonoma. All that for winning a ping-pong tournament? Well,
not just any tournament, it was officiated by the USA Table Tennis Association (USATT),
the national governing body for the Olympic sport of table tennis in the United States.
In the end, reality stars ruled as The Real World's The Miz & Randy Spelling beat outcast
members from Heroes, The Hills, Desperate Housewives, Fantastic Four, Seinfeld, and
many more. Truly, this entire tournament was a tribute to the early 2000s. If they were
able to help out St. Jude’s and raise some funds for life-saving research, it was definitely
worth it.
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