Dippin' Dots facts for kids
Dippin' Dots is a cool ice cream snack that was invented by Curt Jones in 1988. It's made by freezing ice cream mix super fast using something called liquid nitrogen. This creates tiny, colorful beads of ice cream! Dippin' Dots, Inc. makes this snack, and their main office is in Paducah, Kentucky. You can find Dippin' Dots in 14 countries around the world, including places like Honduras and Luxembourg.
Because Dippin' Dots need to be kept super cold (around -40 degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit!), you usually won't find them in regular grocery stores. Most stores don't have freezers that can get that cold.
Instead, you can buy Dippin' Dots in single servings at special stands. Many of these are in fun places like stadiums, sports arenas, and shopping malls. You might also find them in vending machines, aquariums, zoos, museums, and theme parks.
Contents
How Dippin' Dots Started
Dippin' Dots was started in Paducah, Kentucky, in 1988. Curt Jones, who was an expert in cryogenics (the science of super cold temperatures), actually began the company in his parents' garage! Believe it or not, he first thought of this freezing idea while trying to make better food for farm animals.
In 1992, Dippin' Dots got a special patent (like a legal protection for their unique way of making ice cream). Later, in 1996, they tried to sue another company called Mini Melts for using a similar process, but they didn't win the case in 2007.
Japan was the first country outside the U.S. to start selling Dippin' Dots in 1995.
In 2007, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decided that the way Dippin' Dots made their ice cream wasn't unique enough to keep their special patent.
Growing the Company
On November 4, 2011, the company faced some financial difficulties and had to ask for legal protection while they sorted out their money problems. This happened after they couldn't agree with their bank, Regions Bank, which had been trying to get money from Dippin' Dots for over a year.
However, things turned around! On May 18, 2012, a U.S. court approved the purchase of the company by Scott Fischer and his father Mark Fischer. They were the founders of another company called Chaparral Energy in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Fischers decided to keep Curt Jones as the CEO. They also planned to grow the company from 1,600 sales spots to 2,000, keeping the production and main office in Paducah, where 165 people worked.
New Partnerships
In 2014, Dippin' Dots bought a company called Doc Popcorn, which sells gourmet popcorn and had about 100 stores. Then, in February 2015, Dippin' Dots announced they would open stores that sold both Dippin' Dots and Doc Popcorn. These stores would be about 1,000 square feet and have one counter, one cash register, and the same employees for both products.
More recently, in May 2022, a company called J & J Snack Foods Corp. announced they would buy Dippin' Dots for $222 million. The sale was completed on June 21, 2022.
Helping Others
Dippin' Dots has helped out with some great causes! They sponsored a celebrity table tennis tournament in Hollywood called "Celebrity Grand Slam Paddle Jam." The money raised from this event went to help St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, which helps kids with serious illnesses.
The company also gives money to a charity called Give Kids the World Village in Kissimmee, Florida. This village provides free vacations to children with critical illnesses and their families.
Super Cold Science
Dippin' Dots are stored and moved around at -40 degrees Fahrenheit (or -40 degrees Celsius), which is much colder than most frozen foods need to be. Because the company developed special ultra low temperature freezers and ways to store and transport their products, they started selling their equipment for other uses around 1988. For example, their freezers could be used to keep tiny living things (like bacteria) safe for other companies.
To grow this part of their business after the 2011 financial difficulties and sale, a new company called Dippin' Dot (DD) Cryogenics LLC was started in May 2019. DD Cryogenics began freezing and making tiny pellets of microbiological products at their plant in Paducah. In August 2020, a new, special 6,000 square foot factory, costing $3.2 million, opened in Paducah just for this purpose.
Their services include designing and making things for other companies, creating cryogenic processors, and building super cold freezers.
Freezers for Vaccines
DD Cryogenics' special super cold freezers, which can go as low as -122 degrees Fahrenheit, became very interesting when vaccines were created for COVID-19. These vaccines needed to be stored at extremely cold temperatures, around -94 degrees Fahrenheit (-70 degrees Celsius). Pharmacists and companies that distributed the vaccines reached out to Dippin' Dots, asking to use their special freezers.
