Viennetta


Viennetta is a British ice cream product made by Unilever and sold under the various Heartbrand brands around the world. Viennetta is sold in many flavours, including chocolate, mint and pistachio.

History

Viennetta was launched by British ice cream company Wall's in 1982, using a technique devised by Kevin Hillman, development manager at Wall's Gloucester factory, and Ian Butcher.
The original Viennetta was an Italian product comprising layers of vanilla ice cream with sprayed-on layers of compound chocolate. The layers of ice cream were extruded, one after another, onto trays sitting on a moving belt. The rate of extrusion was greater than the speed of the belt which causes festooning or bunching of the ice cream; each layer was extruded at a different speed from the previous layer. The final effect was akin to a series of waves rippling through the product, giving a concertina effect to the resultant confection.
Still hugely successful in the UK, a long running advertising campaign for the product used the slogan "one slice is never enough" which is still occasionally used in promotion efforts.

Availability

Launched originally as a multi-portion dessert product, its success after being launched throughout KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants led to Unilever, owners of Wall's, producing many flavour and size variants. Viennetta is not widely available in the United States, and Unilever no longer produces the brand in Canada. It is sold in Australia and New Zealand under the Streets brand. It is sold in Italy in all supermarkets. It is also sold in Israel by Strauss under the name Fantasia as well as Germany, Greece and Austria. It is sold in Japan by Morinaga & Company. Viennetta was also sold in Indonesia in mid-1990s until mid-2000s and re-introduced at April 2020, after a petition signed by almost 75.000 people demand its comeback to the Indonesian market.
The Viennetta was previously known as Comtessa in Spain due to a legal problem. It became Viennetta in the 1990s.