Baskin Robbins has published a brand book titled ‘Scoop of Happiness’ that showcases the company’s 39-year history of bringing bliss and happiness to its customers. The 262-page book is composed of three parts. Part I titled ‘Brand History’ profiles the brand value and history of Baskin Robbins. Part II titled ‘The Creativity Project’ introduces the recipes for happiness conceived by experts and celebrities in various fields who love Baskin Robbins. Then, Part III presents ‘interviews’ with Baskin Robbins employees who make the brand’s success possible. What facts do we need to know about Baskin Robbins? Here are some of the key and interesting facts about BR’s journey to create sheer bliss.
How do we create ice cream that embodies and brings assorted & unique flavors for the world to enjoy?
Preview: ‘Scoop of Happiness’, Baskin Robbins’ Brand Book
This question was behind the publication of the Baskin Robbins brand book that has introduced the concept of premium ice cream. After almost 40 years of pursuing unique challenges and creative experiments, BR has now become a mecca of ice cream flavors and the world’s No. 1 premium ice cream brand with over 1,500 flavors available. Now, let’s find out more about the BR brand story.
Why does BR create new flavors every month?
BR stories told in numbers
Over the past 80 years since its foundation, BR has been driven by the passion to satisfy varying tastes of individual consumers and provide a mouthful of bliss to everyone, delivering 31 different kinds of blissful flavors to customers.
The BR founders, Mr. Baskin and Robbins, added the number ‘31’ to their slogan to publicize 31 flavor options for customers to choose from, considering that a month has up to 31 days. All BR stores offer 31 seasonal flavors, one for each day of the month.
BR has developed over 1,500 different flavors over the years, including blue berry, green tea, pepper mint, pistachio, Jamocha, cheese, cotton candy, Injeolmi (traditional Korean glutenous rice cake coated with roasted bean flour), caramel, avocado, Hotteuk, potato, mango, salty milk and red bean in addition to perennial flavors like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry.
What is the first flavor ever created by Baskin Robbins? That would be ‘Very Berry Strawberry’. What is the best-selling flavor sold in Korea? That would be ‘Puss In Boots’, a flavor rolled out in 2004. Approximately 18,000 single cups of this favor have been sold since its rollout.
Korea has the second highest tally of stores in the world after the U.S. Since the company officially opened its first store in Myeongdong, Seoul, there are 1,720 stories operating in Korea as of January 2023.
*Source: ‘Scoop of Happiness’
BR’s traces back its origin to offering sweet bliss to soldiers fighting a war
Historic Moments of Baskin Robbins
Irvine Robbins took over his family business and started Snowbird Ice Cream, a specialty ice cream shop in California in 1945. When World War II broke out, he and his brother-in-law, Burton Baskin, started to develop different ice cream flavors to help boost the morale of soldiers fighting in the war.
Robbins and Baskin decided to merge their businesses and call it Baskin Robbins Ice Cream in 1960. A funny story is associated with how the company’s name originated. They could not settle on the new corporate name between ‘Baskin Robbins’ and ‘Robbins Baskin’, so they decided to flip the coin. Driven by the motto, ‘a different flavor for every day’, all BR stores began to serve 31 different seasonal flavors and added the number ‘31’ to its logo.
Since then, the unique product designs have appealed strongly to customers and the varied lineup has been exported to the U.S. and the Middle East, allowing the ice cream cake craze to gain a foothold beyond Korea.
Baskin Robbins Korea has released a new flavor each month since January 2007, which has become a regular event called ‘Flavor of the Month’. Baskin Robbins Korea continues to try new things in order to give customers unique and different ice cream experiences.
*Source: ‘Scoop of Happiness’
What is your recipe for sheer happiness? Create your own recipe for happiness with BR’s 100 different flavors
“Ripe Persimmon Falls in Love with Ice Cream” by Chef Jeong-shik Lim
I think ice cream is probably one of the best dessert condiments you can choose for nice plating. Personally, I like flavors that combine fruit and dairy products. “Ripe Persimmon Fall in Love with Ice Cream” keeps the unique flavors of each individual ingredient alive in a combo of ‘New York cheese cake’ with a rich cheese flavor, crumbles with pine nuts that give a rich nutty flavor, and sweet juicy iced persimmon chunks.
“Chealtteok Kongtteok and Classy Maggeolli” by Myeong-soo Hahn, CCO of Woowa Brothers
When you eat ice cream at a store, you have only two container options, namely a cone or cup. However, you can choose your own container for serving the ice cream of your choice to suit your taste and style at home. After taking a bite of ‘Chaeltteok Kongtteok’ in a fancy glass served with Maggeolli, traditional Korean rice wine in a Northern European Copenhagen-style glass, you feel like a trendsetter with refined tastes.
‘Vanilla & Olive Oil’ by Se-ri Pak
I am a real foodie and take what I eat seriously. So, I like to play with recipes and try different ideas using ingredients that I can easily find in my refrigerator. One day, it just dawned on me to drizzle extra virgin olive oil on my ice cream, which turned out to be a surprisingly tasty combination. The nutty flavor of olive oil and spiciness of black pepper took the flavor of ‘vanilla ice cream’ to a new level.
We make ice cream and bring sheer happiness!
Hee-suh Huh, Head of the Strategy Coordination Department (BR Korea) & Vice President of SPC Group
Q. What does BR mean to you, especially when you were a kid?
It is just part of my everyday life. When I was a boy, BR was just tasty ice cream my mother bought me. But now, BR is where my dream comes true, and my dream is to transform BR into a lifestyle brand by challenging the boundaries beyond the scope of an ice cream brand. In the same vein, I hope that BR stores can serve as a space for customers to express themselves and their personal tastes and convictions.
Q. Where do you find your inspiration?
My passion! Everything is a source of my inspiration. What I see, hear and drink… But if everything is to inspire you, you need to have passion for what you do. Everything at BR Korea is fun for me. The designing process, how a design takes shape in a product and how the product captures the hearts of customers…. Prior to my appointment as vice president of SPC Group, I had acquired various experiences working in the Marketing Division, the Design Center and other departments of the company.
Researcher Eun-ji Yeon, Ice Cream Development Team
Q. Do you still remember the first time you had BR?
Of course! I tried BR for the first time when I was a middle school student. And later as a college student, I often went to a BR store with my friends. So, I formed many good memories at BR stores. When the exams ended, my friends and I would go to a BR store and choose our favorite flavors to enjoy while chatting. Those were the good old days, indeed!
Q. What is your secret recipe for best enjoying BR?
Well, each ice cream flavor has the best combination of ingredients that can go well together in one. So, it tastes best when you eat it as is. But if I had a tip to give, I would recommend you put almond Bong-Bong on top of your croffle or toast. Almond Bong-Bong is a mouth-watering match for croffle because it is vanilla ice cream mixed with milk chocolate syrup and chocolate-coated almonds.
Researcher Mi-rae Kim, Cake Development Team
Q. Since you have switched from an ice cream consumer to an ice cream maker, what changes you have noticed in yourself?
Actually, I was a huge fan of BR even before I joined the company. Every weekend, I stopped by a BR store quite regularly. As a consumer, BR has been and remains my favorite ice cream brand. For me, as someone who makes ice cream, BR is the world’s best ice cream cake brand!! (laughs).
Q. What is the most special ice cream cake you have developed?
Holiday Tree that we developed in 2022 is the most special cake that stays vividly in my mind. The design of the cake was inspired by a Christmas tree. Different decorative items that symbolized typical Christmas ornaments were placed on top of the cake, which made it look quite extravagant. We used Snowball, a sphere-shaped ice cream for the cake design, which became possible since it had been an ice cream brand. The cake was so popular that we launched different variations such as Very Berry Romantic Tree and Oh! Chocolat Bong Bong.
Researcher Young-hyeon Lee, Coffee & Drinks Development Team
Q. What BR products do you think show BR’s true ice cream-making prowess and ingenuity?
Pikachu Zaman-shaped ice in a drink we rolled out in collaboration with Pikachu. By creating character-shaped ice and serving it in the drink, we were able to give our customers new and fun experiences.
Q. How do you want people to remember BR as a brand?
Like our slogan, ‘We Make People Happy’, I hope people remember BR as a brand that brings everyday bliss to their routine lives and makes them happy.
The unfinished journey of Baskin Robbins
Baskin Robbins refuses to confine its boundaries to everyday life. Instead, it takes its curiosity beyond routine life, embraces fun challenges and continues with creative experiments to create recipes for happiness. For almost 80 years, BR has embarked a journey to offer 31 new recipes for happiness each month and the journey progresses on further.
Baskin Robbins’ Brand Book, ‘Scoop of Happiness’
All of the proceeds from the sale of the brand book titled ‘Scoop of Happiness’ will be donated to help feed lunch-insecure children from underprivileged households, as part of BR Korea’s social contribution activities. The brand book is available at online and offline bookstores including Yes 24 and Kyobo Book Center, and 18 Baskin Robbins stores.