BUILDING MONUMENTS OF ICE CREAM

ICE CREAM: When Danes have celebration dinners, the dessert is often an ice cream layer cake – a monumental structure of ice cream, whipped cream, fruit, chocolate and marzipan. And it’s not only a favourite with Danes. The last Danish owned ice cream factory, Polar Is, has also turned it into an export success

50 years ago, there wasn’t a selfrespecting co-operative dairy that didn’t make its own ice cream. It was sold from stalls on country roads, or customers phoned the dairy when family parties were to be held and had the most amazing sculpted ice cream layer cakes brought to their door. At that time there were around 150 ice cream producers.

     Those days are now gone. Industrialisation has replaced old practices, where the dairy operator made the ice cream more or less by hand, while a handful of staff packed the product in glittering gold paper or colourful packs. After World War II, new machines and freezing techniques were introduced, and one ice cream factory after another was closed as small dairies merged and production was concentrated at giant concerns.

Good old days
Today there is just one Danish owned ice cream factory left. Polar Is, in Thisted in northern Denmark, keeps the flag flying by making ice cream according to the old traditions so that it tastes like it did in the good old days, while staying thoroughly up to date with advanced technology, Polar Is [Is means Ice in Danish] is not only a local ice cream producer in a corner of Denmark, but a nationwide supplier of ice cream for everyday life and celebrations.

     “The Danish tradition for using natural and healthy ingredients in the ice cream has meant that consumers on neighbouring markets are increasingly developing a taste for our specialities,” says Jens Jørgen Sørensen. “The biggest sellers are our large and attractive ice cream layer cakes, followed by our frozen cream soufflés, which in portion sizes have gained considerable market share in the restaurant and catering sector. They can serve them as a fast yet delicious dessert, adding their own creativity with decoration and personal touches.”

BACK TO BASICS There is plenty of nostalgia in ice cream. One of the first awarenesscreating taste experiences you have as a child is ice cream, and the sense of a good ice cream follows you throughout life. The industrialisation of ice cream production, which for a large number of discount brands builds on different forms of butter fat or vegetable fat, blended with emulsifiers and stabilizers, and the taste adjusted with artificial flavourings, and then standardised through mass production, has created a backlash among quality conscious consumers. In Denmark there is a back to basics trend, which benefits a number of producers of the real article.      “Polar Is was the first ice cream factory which started making organic ice cream on a large scale,” says director Jens Jørgen Sørensen of Polar Is in Thisted. “We use only state controlled organic products regarding fruits, chocolate, sugar, eggs and cream. It really is ice cream that tastes like it did in the good old days.” Three other smaller ice cream producers in Denmark have achieved great success marketing ice creams which hit the nostalgic sweet spot in consumers. Vebbestrup Mejeri in Jutland makes both organic and nonorganic ice cream in the old fashioned way with pure cream and no artificial flavourings or colourings. When Vebbestrup Mejeri makes banana ice cream, they use bananas and not banana flavour. And the vanilla comes from a vanilla pod, not from a synthetic chemical supplier. Aabybro Mejeri in northern Jutland collaborates with a number of wellknown chefs to develop their Ryå Ice Cream. The dairy produces ice cream based on pure cream from local farmers. It has won a number of quality awards and is served on the Singapore Airlines flight between Copenhagen and Singapore. The dairy has also gained success with sa special ice cream called “Energy Dense”, which as the name suggests is packed with calories. It has been specially developed for the sick and old with poor Hansens Flødeis in Jægerspris, 50 km north of Copenhagen, also makes ice cream from genuine natural ingredients. The owner Hans Jørgen Eibye is a grandchild of the founder of one of Denmark’s large ice cream factories, Frederiksborg Is, which was acquired some years ago by Nestlé. Today Hans Jørgen Eibye makes ice cream using his grandfather’s original recipes. Hansens Flødeis has found its way into the freezer cabinets of several supermarket chains.

Private labels
Polar Is has recently implemented a major expansion of its production capacity to handle increasing demand for own label ice cream. The ice cream is tailored to the exact wishes of customers by virtue of the

factory’s flexibility and ultramodern production machinery.

     Despite tough competition in ice cream production, largely from cheap ice creams made in huge batches from standard products, Polar Is is strengthening its position. The company has over 20% market share in Denmark, and is increasing both volume and turnover by 10% year on year. Today the factory produces about 50 million ice lollies and ice cream layer cakes annually.