Ice Cream Brands » Magnum

Magnum

Magnum is an ice cream brand is owned by the British/Dutch Unilever company, and sold as part of the Heartbrand line of products in most countries.

The original 1990 Magnum (later rebranded as Magnum Classic) consisted of a thick bar of vanilla ice cream on a stick, covered with white or dark chocolate, with a weight of 86 grams (120 ml). In 1994 the company also started selling Magnum ice cream cones, and in 2002 an ice cream sandwich.

Additional varieties

Starting in 1992 the company added Magnum Mint, Double Chocolate, and other ice cream flavors. In 2002 Magnum branched into frozen yogurt with their raspberry fruit swirl covered in milk chocolate. Moments were introduced which were bite-size ice cream treats with caramel, chocolate or hazelnut centres, followed later in the year by "mini", "crunchy" (with almonds) and "light".

Late 2002 saw the launch of Magnum Intense and the limited edition 7 Deadly Sins series of ice creams, whose ice cram flavors were named after the seven deadly sins. Sins was followed by another limited edition range in 2005 in which each flavor was named after one of the senses: Magnum Aroma, Magnum Touch, Magnum Sound, Magnum Taste and Magnum Vision.

In Australia, the product is sold under the brand name Streets Ice Cream. In 2003 Streets brought out a limited edition series of ice creams known as The Sixties Nine featuring sixties-related names: John Lemon, Wood Choc, Jammy Hendrix, Chocwork Orange, Peace ManGo, Cinniman on the Moon, Cherry Guervara, Candy Warhol and Guava Lamp.

Consumers who collected nine of these ice cream sticks could send them off to gain a free Magnum T-Shirt. The extreme popularity of the Chockwork Orange resulted in Streets selling it as the "Chocolate Orange" Magnum for some time after the remainder of the range was discontinued. Similarly, the Peppermint Envy of the Seven Deadly Sins range became "Peppermint" and is still available in Australia today.

In Greece and Romania, the Magnum brand name is owned by Delta/Nestlé, so the Unilever ice cream uses the name Magic.

In 2008 Magnum has brought out new variants in the UK - Mayan Mystica which is a chocolate ice cream Magnum blended with cinnamon, nutmeg and honey flavours, and Magnum Minis available in a variety of flavours. Eva Longoria is the face of Magnum in 2008. Also in 2008, Josh Holloway, from television's Lost, was selected as the first male spokesperson of Magnum in Turkey.

In 2009 they introduced Magnum Mini Moments. They came in 3 types of chocolate... milk, white and dark all with 5 different flavours including almond, truffle etc.

In China the Magnum name is retained, however there are fewer varieties; as of 2009 there are only vanilla, cappuccino, and crunchy. Mint and double chocolate were introduced in 2006/7 but were pulled from the market in 2008 (or possibly before).

Ice structuring protein

In June 2006 Unilever announced that it had submitted an application to produce an "ice structuring protein" for use in ice cream. It prevents ice crystals developing in the ice cream during prolonged storage. This ingredient would be produced from genetically modified yeast, based on a gene from the ocean pout.