This Monday, Ferrero is launching a Nutella ice cream in supermarkets, a meeting between two superstars in the neck of France. On the distribution side, the country alone accounts for 25% of global Nutella production – more than 70,000 tonnes annually, according to the company’s figures. As for ice cream, a third of the French have already bought it this year, according to the NielsenIQ company. All this when we haven’t seen the sun since 1767, which shows how successful the product is.
Everything seems to be coming together for the superhit of the year, and yet. In the world of artisanal ice cream parlors, we didn’t wait until June to sell Nut’ or freely inspired ice cream in a “flavor-spread-chocolate-hazelnut” style, just to get around the mark. And surprise, the taste does not release passions. “It’s an anecdotal scent,” says Bruno Aïm, president of the National Confederation of Glaciers. “Kids take it sometimes, mainly on vacation, but it’s not among the best sellers.” The star perfumes? Vanilla, strawberry, lime … “More refreshing, lighter flavors that go well with summer,” continues the president.
Vanilla, the queen of perfumes
According to a 2017 Harris Interactive survey “The perfect ice cream according to the French”, vanilla is by far the favorite flavor (19% of respondents put it at number 1), followed by chocolate (13%), pistachio and lemon (9% ). bound). The spread or the hazelnut is not even part of the top 10. And it shows in the sales. “A glacier in the south will sell around ten to twelve packs of vanilla ice cream for a single pack of spreadable ice cream,” Bruno Aïm estimates.
Far from the south and the sun, David, from Glacerie Paris, talks about “an ice cream that sells well but is clearly not part of the top three”. The holy trinity of pistachio-vanilla-strawberry is at the top of sales, although at home, the hazelnut spread flavor holds up quite well. “I don’t have an exact ranking, but it must be about 6 or 7 out of about 30 perfumes.” For Raphaël, who sells ice cream around the Champs-Élysées, “it’s a must-have flavor, just to please the kids, but it’s not what will ensure the turnover. It doesn’t sell much.”
In search of the natural
Nothing surprising for Sophie Thiron, food sociologist and specialist in the relationship with the industrialization of food: “There is a myth surrounding artisanal food, which should provide food composed of natural, raw elements, good for health. We are looking for a “pure” and noble product.” Leave – or almost – spreads at our favorite ice cream makers.
Proof that the thing is not indispensable, some experts in the scent ball and other cones even do without this taste. A choice particularly asserted by Lisa, manager of Combi, an ice cream parlor in Canet-en-Roussillon (Pyrénées-Orientales): “We are in a qualitative approach with raw materials selected for our products. I do not offer flavors of Smurf, Nutella, etc. . »
Dissatisfied with crafts, happy with the supermarket?
Nutella ice cream is sold a few meters away at Glacier de Canet. “It’s a perfume that sells well, maybe not top 3, but at the top of sales,” praises Romain. It has the advantage that it has a fairly heterogeneous audience in terms of age and gender, where other flavors are more prominent – Smurf only for children or Romrosin for adults.
What soothes Nutella? Let the Italian giant breathe, the relative indifference in the world of artisanal ice cream does not bode well for sales on the shelves. “Industrialization is much more tolerated in the supermarket,” recalls Sophie Thiron. If there is healthy awareness in the population, we still lose in large areas the direct interaction we have with the craftsman and, by extension, in our imagination, with the product. We therefore make less demands on the quality or the “natural” side of it. »
