The inside story of Trumpet’s chocolate tip
The story of the treat-within-a-treat, some bad news about rats going shopping and some good news for grapefruit Fruju fans.
Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome to The Boil Up, The Spinoff’s weekly food newsletter. This edition is by The Spinoff senior writer Alex Casey. It’s lovely to have you here!
In the first episode of Snackmasters NZ, in which chefs Darius Lolaiy and Ganesh Raj are challenged to recreate the boysenberry Trumpet, there’s one particular element that the Tip Top judges froth over. “Look at that plug, LOOK at that plug,” says one. “Great plug,” adds another, “the people love to see that.” The verdict is in for winner Lolaiy – “that is an A+ plug”.
This unsexy-sounding “plug” refers to the delicious morsel of hardened dark chocolate that greets the consumer at the end of any Trumpet cone. Indulging in a mint Trumpet this week in the name of science, I was left flabbergasted by the pure decadence and unparalleled generosity of this bonus treat-within-a-treat, and wanted to know how it came to be.
Ben Schurr, the CEO of Tip Top, was five years old when the Rachel Hunter Trumpet ad came out, and remembers it being one of the more “special” treats he was allowed as a kid. “The first time you have a Trumpet is just an amazing experience,” he says. “When you get to the end and there is that little chocolate tip… it just absolutely blows you away.”
Although it has now become one of the defining elements, Schurr tells me the chocolate tip was never part of the Trumpet plan. Back in the early 1960s, mass produced ice creams were mostly just ice cream and a cone, and manufacturers faced many issues with sogginess. “You can imagine everyone at the factory looking at the line and saying, how do we solve this problem?”
Tip Top would have already had around 50 tonnes of chocolate onsite to service the likes of the Choc Bar and the Jelly Tip dip, and Schurr says it would have made sense to spray it to the inside of the Trumpet cone to fight the dreaded sog. “Not only does it taste delicious but it also, crucially, creates that barrier between Mr. Cone and Mr. Ice Cream,” he explains.
It worked, but physics threw in another delicious curveball. “Even though our factory looks like Willy Wonka’s play pen, gravity is exactly the same here,” Schurr explains. To coat the entire inside of the cone as effectively as possible required a generous amount of chocolate spray, the excess of which settled to form a chocolate “plug” at the base of the cone.
“With technology being the way it was back then, the chocolate core was born because we didn’t really have a choice,” says Schurr. “What an amazing moment for the country.”
These days, the factory technology is much more sophisticated than in 1964, and Schurr says they could easily remove the chocolate tip. “If we were cone grinches, we could do it,” he threatens. “But then that would ruin the expectation of anybody that eats a Trumpet – it wouldn’t have that magic ending when you get to that little chocolate treat.”
Although beloved, the chocolate tip also appears to have had a Mandela effect on customers, who will frequently complain to Tip Top that it has both grown… and shrunk. “One of our hourly checks is to specifically look at the amount of chocolate spray and ensure that it’s the right viscosity, formulation and temperature to make the perfect size tip,” says Schurr.
“You would be amazed about the amount of hours that have been invested in New Zealand to get this absolutely perfect and consistent every single time.”
Thankfully, Schurr can say unequivocally that, even after 60 years, Trumpet’s chocolate tip isn’t going anywhere. “I think we'd be in big trouble,” he laughs. “I know it sounds like a life or death sort of thing, but it really is so important and I do take it really seriously.” Although the tip may be a mainstay, Schurr says there is always room for consumers to add their own personal flair.
“I do know some people out there eat the tip first, but I think it’s more an Australian thing where they do things a bit wrong,” he laughs. “And only once in my life have I seen someone eat a whole Trumpet and left the tip uneaten. I guess there’s a first for everything, right?”
Here for a knockout season, BurgerFuel has drafted the ultimate GOAT of burger creations. Move over Mahomes, the Iron Rebel is in town for a limited time only. This halftime heavy hitter has a 100% pure grass-fed NZ beef patty stacked with slow-cooked smoked pulled beef, marinated in a sticky BBQ sauce for a flavour touchdown. Teamed up with melted cheddar, mesclun and BurgerFuel free-range aioli, the Iron Rebel is a feast fit for a linebacker. Don’t stay on the bench, head into BurgerFuel to tackle this limited time only burger now! (sponsored)
Weekly bites
Production on the Ratatouille prequel is well underway in various regions in Aotearoa, with a plethora of rodents-in-supermarkets stories inspiring The Spinoff to launch our own interactive rat tracker. Locations of interest currently include Dunedin (now famous mirror rat next to salami), Christchurch (mouse near potato salad at Eastgate) and Auckland’s Lincoln Road (mouse running to shampoo aisle).
Some slightly better news for fans of the grapefruit Fruju: they’re back baby, but only for a limited time. “We’ve had a lot of incoming inquiries from grapefruit and lemon fans over the last 12 months and luckily we’ve found the packaging and materials to be able to put together a limited run,” a Tip Top spokesperson told The Spinoff. “We saw the opportunity to do it and the sun has been shining – so it’s perfect grapefruit and lemon Fruju weather.” Once again the tactic of “discontinue then bring back then discontinue again” proves a winner.
And back to sad news: Hiakai is closing in March, six years since it began as a Māori fine dining pop up in Wellington. “The world has changed since those doors opened, and so have we,” reads a post on the Hiakai Facebook page. “The landscape for owning a small business is incredibly tough and running a restaurant of this magnitude is all-consuming. A passion project. Every single day we gave it everything we had, and so did our team. Now we are ready for change. At a time of unprecedented global food crises, we want to be part of the solutions.” The Spinoff crew are longtime fans of Hiakai and Fiso.
The Spinoff and Boring Oat Milk with the support from Coffee Supreme proudly presents Boring Breakfast – Wellington.
As a compact city with an outsized culinary reputation, Wellington has always taken hospitality very seriously. But as the city moves forward from the disruption of the early 2020s, how do those within the sector feel about its current state?
Join us as Boring Breakfast visits Te Whanganui-a-Tara for the very first time, with host Sophie Gilmour (Delicious Business) welcoming guests Douglas Johns (Coffee Supreme), Juno Miers and Thomas Adam (Margot) to discuss what they do, why they do it and their hopes for the city's hospo future.
If you would like to attend, please RSVP to: commercial@thespinoff.co.nz by February 26
Snack of the week
New Zealand King Salmon Slices, $13.99 for 40 grams. We adopted a rescue dog named Maggie two weeks ago, so my snack focus has been forced to pivot dramatically to the dog treat aisle at Animates. I haven’t owned a dog for a few years and am truly stunned at how flash and delicious-looking their snack options are now. These are freeze dried slices of New Zealand King Salmon that look and feel like astronaut food and can helpfully be shredded down to tiny morsels to make the pricey bag last a very long time. They also absolutely reek, which is very bad for us but very good for training purposes. Both our dog and cat absolutely love them, and tbh I’ve been tempted to have a nibble but am yet to acquiesce (however I did eat a few of those tantalizing dog choc drops as a desperate teenager and still have no regrets).
Mā te wā,
Alex
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