The History of Baskin-Robbins

Irvine "Irv" Robbins grew up in his family’s Tacoma, Washington ice cream store. After getting out of the military in 1945, Robbins opened his own shop called Snowbird Ice Cream in Glendale, California. His brother-in-law, Burton "Burt" Baskin, founded his own ice cream shop called Burton’s Ice Cream in Pasadena, California just one year later. By 1948, the two had decided to combine their stores into one entity: Baskin-Robbins. (They flipped a coin to determine whose name would come first.) Soon after opening their joint store, the brothers-in-law began opening franchises all across the country. As the company grew, they began to promote having 31 flavors to choose from at any given time — one for every day of the month. However, these flavors were rotated regularly, so Baskin-Robbins has actually introduced over 1,300 flavors in total over the years! (The most popular five flavors are Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pralines 'n Cream, and Chocolate Chip.) Today, Baskin-Robbins has locations in over 40 countries and boasts many devoted fans of their ice cream around the globe.