Häagen-Dazs pints now more pint-sized

In the fight of high-end grocery store ice creams there are really only two players. Ben & Jerry’s, with its pun-named flavors and hippy packaging, and Häagen-Dazs, with its gold-colored leafing and Germanic umlauts.

They don’t just represent different ends of the packaging spectrum. Due in part to founder Ben Cohen’s inability to taste or smell, Ben & Jerry’s put large chunks of mix-ins (Cohen likes the mouth-feel) and would experiment with putting three or four different flavors into one pint. Häagen-Dazs keeps its ice cream simple, with two flavors maximum but mostly plain ice creams and lots of sorbets. Just look at each company’s top seller. Häagen-Dazs’ is vanilla, Ben & Jerry’s is Cherry Garcia.

Recently, the fight has taken a turn.