Viennetta is a British brand of

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

dessert made by

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

and sold under the various

Heartbrand This is a list of brands owned by the British multinational consumer goods company Unilever. Unilever's billion euro brands These brands have annual sales of one billion euros or more: * Axe/Lynx *Dove *Omo/Persil * Heartbrand (Wall's) ice ...

brands around the world. The original Viennetta consists of several rippled layers of ice cream separated by thin layers of sprayed-on

compound chocolate Compound chocolate is a product made from a combination of cocoa, vegetable fat and sweeteners. It is used as a lower-cost alternative to true chocolate, as it uses less-expensive hard vegetable fats such as coconut oil or palm kernel oil in pl ...

. It is now available in many flavours, including vanilla and mint.

History

Viennetta was launched by British ice cream company Wall's in 1982. The layered product and patented technique for its production were devised by Kevin Hillman, development manager at Wall's

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east ...

factory, Ian Butcher, and Gordon Stewart Carrick. The layers of ice cream were extruded, one after another, onto trays sitting on a moving belt. The rate of extrusion was greater than the speed of the belt which causes festooning or bunching of the ice cream; each layer was extruded at a different speed from the previous layer. The final effect was akin to a series of waves rippling through the product, giving a concertina effect to the resultant confection. A long running UK advertising campaign for the product used the slogan "one slice is never enough", which is still occasionally used in promotion efforts. In 2007, to celebrate the brand's 25th birthday, a long Viennetta was made, setting the world record for longest ice cream.

Worldwide distribution

Launched originally as a multi-portion dessert product, its success after being launched throughout

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and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

restaurants led to Unilever, owners of Wall's, producing many flavour and size variants. Viennetta was introduced in the United States and Canada in the late 1980s under the Breyer's brand, and was discontinued in the mid-1990s, but was re-introduced in the US in 2021 under the Good Humor brand. Unilever no longer produces the brand in Canada. It is sold in Australia and New Zealand under the Streets brand. It is sold in Italy in all supermarkets by

Algida This is a list of brands owned by the British multinational consumer goods company Unilever. Unilever's billion euro brands These brands have annual sales of one billion euros or more: * Axe/Lynx *Dove *Omo/Persil * Heartbrand (Wall's) ice ...

, and in Israel by Strauss, under the name Fantasia ("פנטסיה") as well as Germany, Greece and Austria. It is sold in Japan by

Morinaga & Company is a confectionery company in Tokyo, Japan, in operation since 1899. Their products include candy and other confectioneries. Morinaga has had Ayumi Hamasaki and Mao Asada appear in their commercials, and in the past has used stars such as the ...

. In Finland, Viennetta is sold under the Ingman brand. Viennetta was also sold in Indonesia from mid-1990s until the mid-2000s, and re-introduced in April 2020, after a petition signed by almost 75,000 people demanded its comeback to the Indonesian market. In Thailand, it was originally available in the 1990s, and reintroduced again in November 2020. Viennetta was previously known as ''Comtessa'' in Spain, due to a legal problem, but became Viennetta in the 1990s.

References

Ice cream brands Unilever brands Products introduced in 1982 {{food-product-stub