When the first Klondike Bar advertisement was published in Youngstown, Ohio's Youngstown Vindicator daily newspaper in 1922, there were five flavors of the square, stickless bars available: vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, maple, and cherry.
Today, only two of the launching five remain: There's the original vanilla, of course, and double chocolate, too. But the strawberry has been downgraded to just one third of the neapolitan bar, and the maple and cherry have been replaced by a whole new crew of cool-kid flavors: caramel pretzel, Reese's, s'mores, rocky road, Oreo, Heath, cookie dough swirl, Krunch, mint chocolate chip, and dark chocolate. (That's for the sophisticated among you.)
But where's the pumpkin spice? The biggest "trend" (I'd prefer to think of it as a fad) is noticeably absent in the Klondike line-up.
It can takes months and even years for Klondike's "R&D experts [to] go through hundreds of combinations until coming up with the next to hit the shelves," the company* told me. That means that even though pumpkin spice is only spinning farther and farther out of control as autumns come and go, we don't have a pumpkin spice Klondike—yet.
“We always take into consideration popular trends when brainstorming new varieties," Klondike said. "Who knows what our R&D lab has up their sleeve next?” (I think I do.)
What flavors might the company want to get started developing now? Matcha, for one. Salted caramel, almond butter, cacao nib. Cricket? Or saffron, coffee, cinnamon... (Okay, you caught me: Now I'm just going with the trends Pinterest is already nurturing). But what about tahini or fig or black sesame? Those are my selfish requests.
And if you're not satisfied with the flavor selection, you can always make your own Klondike Bars at home using the simple soften-freeze-slice-freeze-dip-freeze method.
Soften your ice cream—any flavor!—then freeze it in a plastic wrap-lined rectangular baking dish. Remove the ice cream block from the dish, slice it into squares, freeze it again, and then dip it into magic shell. Refreeze until your own personal any-flavor Klondike Bars are firm enough for consumption.
And yes, this does mean you can make your own pumpkin spice Klondike Bars so that you won't have to wait till March 2017, when the company releases its newest family members.
*I worked through a rep, who sent my prodding questions to a mythical Klondike, to which she asked me to attribute the answers.
Do you Klondike? Name your favorite flavor of all time in the comments.
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