Cool-A-Coo
{{Short description|Defunct ice cream sandwich product}}
Cool-A-Coo was a vanilla ice cream sandwich made with oatmeal cookies and dipped in chocolate. It was a specialty in the Los Angeles area for over 25 years and was made fresh in Southern California. It was the original ice cream sandwich of the Los Angeles Dodgers.{{Cite web|title = COOL - A - COO {{!}} Product|url = http://www.coolacoo.com/product/|website = www.coolacoo.com|accessdate = 2015-10-20}} As of August 2016, it has been discontinued and is no longer available.
History
Leo Politis, the original maker of Cool-A-Coo in El Monte, California, along with 30 employees, made 3 million Cool-A-Coos a year to keep up with an average of 4,000 Cool-A-Coos being consumed per game at Dodger Stadium before the early 1990s.{{Cite news|title = Cool-A-Coo, Where Are You?|url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-aug-15-tm-239-story.html|newspaper = Los Angeles Times|date = 1999-08-15|access-date = 2015-10-28|issn = 0458-3035|language = en|first = Mary|last = Melton}}
Although it is the original ice cream sandwich of the Dodgers, Cool-A-Coo disappeared from Dodger stadium in 1998 when Peter O'Malley sold the Dodgers to News Corp.{{Cite news|title = Cool-A-Coo comeback: A chocolate-covered win-win for the Dodgers|url = https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2012-may-05-la-sp-0506-shaikin-baseball-20120506-story.html|newspaper = Los Angeles Times|date = 2012-05-05|access-date = 2015-10-20|issn = 0458-3035|language = en|first = Bill|last = Shaikin}} Due to thousands of requests through a suggestion box put out by Stan Kasten, CEO of the Dodgers, Cool-A-Coo made its comeback to the stadium in 2012.{{Cite web|title = Kasten: We'll Bring Back the Cool-A-Coo|url = https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/34dcc235-1767-4601-8c81-f983760a17e0|website = Bloomberg.com|accessdate = 2015-10-20}}
After being removed from sale at Dodgers Stadium, Leo Politis sold his company and the Cool-A-Coo trademark to Sweet Novelty Inc which ceased production of the dessert. In order to bring Cool-A-Coo back, the Dodgers negotiated a contract with Sweet Novelty to produce Cool-A-Coo and revisited deals with existing ice cream vendors in order to compete with a new concession stand vendor.{{Cite news|title = Dodgers' season will have a sweet ending|url = https://www.latimes.com/sports/la-xpm-2012-sep-13-la-sp-0913-dodgers-coolacoo-20120913-story.html|newspaper = Los Angeles Times|date = 2012-09-13|access-date = 2015-10-20|issn = 0458-3035|language = en|first = Bill|last = Shaikin}} Levy Restaurants, the Dodger Stadium concessionaire's new recipe leaves all of the basics unchanged from the original.
As part of development of the new recipe, a few prototypes were created and tasted by Dodgers Stadium employees that had eaten the original Cool-A-Coo. In their opinion, the prototypes — with less sweet and more dense vanilla ice cream — did not taste like the original Cool-A-Coo. The perfection of the new recipe also required a missing ingredient in the oatmeal cookies in the form of cinnamon.
In 2016, the Cool-A-Coo was discontinued and is no longer being manufactured or sold.
References
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